In the news

■ Before Matthew Perry was found dead in his hot tub last October at age 54, the former Friends co-star claimed to be on a path toward redemption after a long struggle with drugs and alcohol. The reality was more complicated, Us Weekly and the Daily Mail (U.K.) reported last week. Perry, whose death was linked to the powerful anesthetic ketamine, lied about being sober while promoting his 2022 memoir “to sell books,” one source said. At the same time, he was abusive and manipulative to friends and partners. Sources claim he threw his sober companion Morgan Moses into a wall in 2022 after being confronted for being high, and hurled a coffee table at then-fiancée Molly Hurwitz in 2021 after being confronted about his cheating. Perry “wasn’t a horrible human being,” another source told Us, but “he was so warped in his addiction that he wasn’t himself and the man he should be.” ■ Queen Elizabeth II was left in a rage over claims by her grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, that she had given her blessing to naming their daughter Lilibet— Elizabeth’s childhood nickname—according to a new book on the royals. When their daughter was born in California in 2021, Harry and Meghan told the press that the queen had been “supportive” of their surprising name choice. But in his book, royal reporter Robert Hardman quotes an aide to Elizabeth as saying the queen was “as angry as I’d ever seen her” when she heard that statement. A play on how Elizabeth mispronounced her name as a young princess, the nickname “Lilibet” was used only by the late queen’s closest friends and family. ■ Donald Trump has shed 30 pounds thanks to his wife, Melania, steering him away from the Mar-a-Lago buffet line, the New York Post reported last week. Trump, 77, claimed to be 240 pounds when he was booked on campaign finance charges in Manhattan in April, and then to be 215 pounds when he surrendered in August to Georgia authorities on election interference charges. Many commentators are skeptical that the former president has lost so much weight, but a source told the Post that Trump is no longer seen “scarfing down ice cream sundaes” at his Florida resort. “It’s pure speculation,” the source added, that Trump is taking weight loss drugs “like Ozempic or Wegovy, which are very popular in Palm Beach.”