Nearly 20 years earlier than the loss of life of Matthew Perry, his Buddies co-star Jennifer Aniston wept on the considered shedding him. Through the 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer, the long-lasting actress broke down after she was requested what the actor didn’t learn about himself. “That he’s alright,” she replied, whereas dabbing her eye with a tissue and turning into visibly emotional.

“He struggled,” she recalled, addressing his yearslong battle with dependancy. “And we didn’t know. We weren’t geared up to take care of it. No one had ever handled that. And the concept of ever shedding him…” she trailed off, overcome by the thought. The feedback got here after Diane requested Jennifer what every of the forged members didn’t learn about themselves, forward of the long-lasting sitcom’s last episode.

Matthew died on the age of 54 after an obvious drowning at his Los Angeles house on October 28. The surviving forged members of the NBC sitcom — Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc, took two days to grieve earlier than lastly releasing a public assertion on the unimaginable loss. 

“We’re all so totally devastated by the lack of Matthew. We had been extra than simply forged mates. We’re a household,” the assertion obtained by PEOPLE on October 30 learn. “There’s a lot to say, however proper now we’re going to take a second to grieve and course of this unfathomable loss. In time we’ll say extra, as and once we are ready. For now, our ideas and our love are with Matty’s household, his associates, and everybody who liked him around the globe.” The heartbreaking assertion was signed by every of them.

In one other interview by Diane Sawyer, Matthew himself opened up concerning the second Jennifer Aniston confronted him together with his dependancy points. “‘We all know you’re ingesting,’” Diane quoted Jennifer within the interview, which aired on October 28, 2022. “Think about how scary a second that was,” Matthew recalled.

He additionally revealed that Jennifer was the one who “reached out” to him “”probably the most” amid his prolonged battle. “I’m actually grateful to her for that,” he mentioned.