SHE’S REALLY STRUGGLING
After losing her father less than a year ago, Jennifer Aniston has been left reeling by the death of her former co-star Matthew Perry
THEIR bond was forged during the years they ruled the sitcom scene. Acting as friends was no hardship – the six people who delighted viewers week after week were as close in real life as they were on screen. As they themselves have described it, they were family – so when the unthinkable happened they were devastated.
Matthew Perry’s recent death in a hot tub has shaken the Friends cast to the core and, apart from a brief statement expressing their shock and sadness, they have remained silent as they process their pain.
But the person who’s suffering the most is Jennifer Aniston. “Matthew’s death has completely knocked her off her feet,” a close source says.
For Jen (54), it’s pain upon pain. She’s still trying to come to terms with the void left by her beloved father, John Aniston, whose death in November last year left her bereft.
“She still hasn’t regained her footing from that,” the insider says.
Jen joined Friends co-stars David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox to honour their “Matty” at a private funeral in Los Angeles a few days after he died at his Pacific Palisades home.
“Of the remaining five, Jen and Courteney are reeling the most and Jen is probably the one who’s struggling most acutely,” another insider says.
“It’s a massive loss, with the oneyear anniversary of her dad’s death just around the corner.”
Jen reportedly was the first to arrive at the funeral and kept mostly to herself during the service. “She was heartbroken that the day had come when she was laying her friend to rest,” the source says.
In an interview with TV host Diane Sawyer several years ago, Jennifer was reduced to tears at the prospect of ever losing Matthew. And now it has happened.
“It doesn’t matter whether he died as a result of a freak accident or whether it was directly connected to his drug issues,” a friend told the Daily Mail.
“This was a day she had dreaded coming for 20 years. She wanted to help Matthew any way she could.
That was a constant.”
J‘IT’S A MASSIVE LOSS, WITH THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HER DAD’S DEATH JUST AROUND THE CORNER’
EN and Matt crossed paths three years before they were cast as Rachel and Chandler in Friends. They met through mutual acquaintances and Matthew admitted he was “immediately taken” by her.
In his explosive 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, he said he had a huge crush on her and recalled how she was the first person he wanted to tell when he booked two pre-Friends gigs in one day.
“Bad idea – I could feel ice forming through the phone,” he added. “Looking back, it was clear this made her think I liked her too much, or in the wrong kind of way
. . . and I only compounded the error by then asking her out.” She eventually let him down gently and said they should just be friends – but that didn’t stop him from admiring her on set.
“Fairly early in the making of Friends I realised that I was still crushing badly on her,” he said. “Our hellos and goodbyes became awkward. And then I’d ask myself, ‘How long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?’”
Matthew poignantly referred to this in his book’s acknowledgements. “And thanks to Jenny, for letting me look at that face an extra two seconds every single day.” Jennifer was the one who, as Matthew’s addiction issues spiralled out of control, confronted him and shared the cast’s concern.
She took him to his trailer and told him his “secret” wasn’t so secret. He was drinking heavily and she told him everyone was aware of it.
“We can smell it,” she said – and in his book Matthew said the “we” hit him “like a sledgehammer” as it implied everyone knew.
During an interview with Diane Sawyer last year, he recalled how much he had appreciated Jen’s concern.
“She was the one that reached out the most,” he said. “You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
In 2004 – the year Friends ended – an emotional Jennifer said Matthew’s battles hit the cast hard.
“He struggled and we weren’t equipped to deal with it,” she said. “Nobody had ever dealt with that.”
Matt had unfailing gratitude for the way his “understanding and patient” Friends co-stars stuck by him.
“It’s like penguins,” he said. “Penguins, in nature, when one is sick or when one is injured the other penguins surround it and prop it up.
“They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
FRIENDS created the foundation for Matt and Jen’s friendship and they continued to hang out long after the show ended. They went to each other’s birthday parties, guest starred on each other’s projects, supported each other at premieres and went on casual dinner dates.
Yet as close as they were, Jen admitted in a 2021 interview she hadn’t realised the full extent of what Matthew was going through during their time on the hit sitcom.
“I didn’t understand the level of anxiety and self-torture that was put on Matthew if he didn’t get that laugh and the devastation that he felt,” she told Today.
The last time Jen and Matthew appeared on camera together was for the Friends reunion special which aired in 2021. When he became emotional at one stage while discussing his insecurities, she was the one who consoled him. Jen had long been his shoulder to cry on.
“Nobody shed more tears for Matthew during the darkest points of his struggles with addiction than Jennifer,” a close friend of the actress says.
“There was speculation at the time of the Friends reunion that Matthew wouldn’t be a part of it because his demons had gotten the better of him. But Jennifer absolutely wouldn’t have done it without him.
“He put in the work and made it a success even though he seemed frail. Jennifer genuinely thought his worst days were behind him, so his death just two years later has come as a bitter body blow to her.”
Friends say Jen’s second ex-husband, Justin Theroux, has been a big support to her – first after the death of her dad and now as she deals with the loss of her friend.
“Justin is calling regularly to check up on her,” one friend says.
“She’s just trying to regroup and recover. But it’s been a completely devastating blow.”