Inside His Tell-All

Matthew Perry knows he’s lucky to be alive, given his history of substance abuse and health issues. Now, he’s opening up about everything that led him down such a dark road, including how he handled the intense fame after being cast as Chandler Bing on Friends in 1994. “The highs were high, the lows were low,” Perry said, announcing the name of his upcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. “He hit the wall more times than he can remember,” an insider says of the actor, 52, who first went to rehab for a Vicodin addiction in 1997 and reentered in 2001 for an undisclosed illness. “He knows it’s a miracle he’s still here. Now wants to use his survival for the greater good.” Plus, he’s ready to dish on his hit show! “It wasn’t always a bed of roses on Friends,” the insider says. “He isn’t going to sugarcoat the tougher times he went through with the cast.”

An insider says Perry will spill “the good and bad” on reuniting with his Friends costars last year, promising, “This will be an incredibly juicy read!”