Matthew Perry’s mother charged in Friends Star’s Death, Final Days
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Matthew Perry’s mother charged in Friends Star’s Death, Final Days

Matthew Perrythe family remembers the late Friends star and looking forward to criminal trial for two of the people charged in connection with his death.

In an interview that aired on Today show on Monday, the a year since Perry’s death at age 54 from acute effects of ketaminePerry’s mother Suzanne Morrison, his stepfather Date line correspondent Keith Morrison and three of his sisters – Caitlin, Emily and Madeline Morrison – looked back on Perry’s final days and what they will remember about their late family member.

Suzanne recalled that he felt, shortly before Perry died, that “there was an inevitability of what was going to happen next to him, and he felt it very strongly.”

“He went through a period, interestingly enough, right before he died when he showed me one of his new houses,” she said in her interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie. “He came up to me and he said, ‘I love you so much, and I’m so happy to be with you now. And I’m so…’ It was almost like it was a premonition or something. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I thought, ‘How long has it been since we had a conversation like that?’ It’s been years.”

In the days before he died, Perry told her mother, “I’m not afraid anymore,” she recalled, adding that it “troubled” her.

Perry was was found dead in the hot tub at his home in Los Angeles and the actor, who had spoke volumes about his struggles with addiction over the yearshad said a year earlier, tied to the release of his memoir, that he was sober and seemed committed to staying clean.

Even after his death, those who knew him said he was still sober.

But in the Monday interview with TodayKeith wondered whether Perry was still sober or, as prosecutors claim, had become addicted to ketamine.

Asked if they believed Perry was still sober and “on his way” when he died, Keith said, “it seemed to us that he was,” as Suzanne shook her head.

“Not to you?” he told her. “It sure seemed that way to me.”

Keith continued, “Even though he had been treated with ketamine, it hadn’t turned into something he couldn’t control. Even though he was a guy who would make decisions, ‘I can handle this, I can do this, I can tell what’s right I know the whole system inside out I know what the drug will do to me So that’s what he’s doing.

And Perry’s sister Madeline observed: “I don’t even know if he had a relapse in his mind.”

Now, a year after Perry’s death, five people have been indicted and charged in an investigation into what happened to the actor, which unearthed a “vast underground criminal network.”

Three of them have reached plea deals and are cooperating with prosecutors while two of the accused, Dr Salvador Plasencia and an alleged dealer Jasveen Sangha known as the “Ketamine Queen”, are will be tested in early 2025.

Suzanne said she was “delighted” by the allegations, and Keith hopes the legal action will have an effect.

“What I hope, and I think the agencies that got involved in this hope, is that people who have put themselves in the business of supplying people with drugs that kill them — they’re now on notice,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what your professional credentials are. You’re going down, honey.”

Keith also hopes Perry’s experience will teach a lesson.

“What he taught the world is that no amount of money will cure an addict. Something else is needed, he says. That’s what we’re trying to do (with the foundation).”

Perry’s family also spoke about the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which was established in the wake of the actor’s death in his home country, which is separated from American Matthew Perry Foundation but both organizations have similar intentions.

Writing in his memoirs, Perry spoke in the last years of his life about his efforts to help other addicts and how he hoped that was how he would be remembered.

“He made it a big focus in his life to help other people, to encourage other people to say, ‘I need help.'” He tried to get people to see that it was a brave thing to do, said Caitlin, who serves as executive director for the Matthew Perry Foundation in Canada.

And Suzanne makes peace with her own limits when it came to helping her son.

“I’m a very happy woman. But there was a flaw, there was a problem that I couldn’t – I couldn’t overcome. I couldn’t help him,” she said.

She added, speaking of her support for the foundation, “The one thing I have to learn – (and it’)) is very hard – is that you have to stop blaming yourself. Because you don’t understand what your child or what your husband or wife goes through. And you have to stop, because it wears you out.”

Perry’s family talked about how they will sometimes still talk to him or feel the need to reach out to him a year after his death.

And his mother said fans continue to visit his grave and leave letters about the “incredible” impact he had on them.

“When I’m there, people will come to see him – still now. It usually goes away,” she says. “They leave really nice letters for him. Like, ‘I felt so sad. You helped me get through my teenage years.”

“Maybe I’ll release them at some point, so people can see,” she said of the notes. “But they really loved him, because they could relate to him.”