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Keith Morrison, the veteran “Dateline” correspondent and stepfather of the late actor Matthew Perry, says in a new interview that the “Friends” star felt like he was overcoming his years of struggle with addiction before he was found unconscious in his hot tub. at the end of October. .
“I felt like I was getting over it,” Morrison told “TODAY” show co-host Hoda Kotb on an episode of hers. “Making Spaces” Podcast. “But he never gets over it, and he knew it too.”
Morrison said your pain is still raw. “He is with you every day. It’s with you all the time and there’s some new aspect that assaults your brain,” she said. “Is not easy.”
Perry, who spoke openly about his experiences with alcoholism and substance abuse, died Oct. 28 at age 54 from the “acute effects” of ketamine, the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said in a report. autopsy published in December. The report said drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a synthetic opioid, contributed to his death.
The autopsy report said Perry had been “supposedly clean for 19 months.” According to the findings, it was reported that he had been using ketamine infusion therapy to help deal with depression and anxiety, and his last treatment was a week and a half before he died.
Morrison, who has been married to Perry’s mother, Suzanne Perry Morrison, since 1981, told Kotb that his stepson “didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair.”
Perry was beloved by generations of viewers for his role as brainy accountant Chandler Bing on the NBC comedy “Friends.” In late 2022, Perry published a memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” which chronicles his upbringing in Canada, as well as his rise to fame, the challenges of addiction and recovery from he.
Morrison said Perry and his mother were closer than they had been in decades when he died. They “texted constantly” and he shared “things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with her mother.” (Perry’s mother, who was press secretary to the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, divorced her biological father when Perry was young.)
Morrison said he can still feel “the echo” of Perry’s presence in his daily life, remembering his stepson as a “larger than life person” who always “lit up a room.”
“It was stupid. He was funny. He was scathing,” Morrison said. “But even if he didn’t say a word, he was the center of attention.”
Describing their relationship, Morrison said he and Perry were, “as they say, chalk and cheese. “He was loud, fun and aggressive.”
Morrison recalled taking a young Perry to Saturday morning hockey games, remembering that “if he didn’t score all the goals, he would sulk all the way home and wouldn’t talk to anyone; he was really angry.” Perry would behave much the same if he missed a shot during a tennis match.
“He had that kind of very fiery personality, and mine is not like that, as you can imagine,” said Morrison, widely known for his wry baritone voice. “But we get along well. … I never tried to replace his father… but I was there for him and he knew it.” (Perry’s biological father was actor John Bennett Perry, who has appeared in several films and television shows.)
Morrison said he tried to support Perry “as much as possible” over the years.
“It’s a whirlwind of a life, to be involved in a show that was so successful, to be fighting an addiction that was so virulent, that followed him so hard,” Morrison said, adding that Perry would reach a “certain point” in that he knew he needed to get treatment and “accept help when he needed it.”
“But like he said himself, it kept happening… and he was a big bear,” Morrison said. “It was something difficult… something big and terrible.”