Friends co-stars ‘did not attend Matthew Perry’s entire memorial service and were not seen at his private funeral’
MATTHEW Perry’s Friends co-stars came to his memorial service but didn’t stay the entire time, an insider has claimed.
The castmates reportedly walked out when close friends and family members took Matthew’s body to Forest Lawn Cemetary in Los Angeles.
Dressed in somber black outfits, former costars Jennifer Aniston, 54, Lisa Kudrow, 60, Courteney Cox, 59, and David Schwimmer, 57, all arrived to mourn the loss of Matthew, 54, on Friday.
The final castmember Matt LeBlanc, 56, later joined the crew outside the church after the one-hour-long service concluded, an insider told Daily Mail.
Matthew, known for being the youngest cast member on the sensationally popular sitcom Friends, was found dead in his hot tub on October 28.
The discovery broke the hearts of fans who had just learned of his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
An initial report from the medical examiner found no illegal substances in his system when he died, and more detailed testing is to come.
According to a source close to the matter, Matthew’s mourning co-stars did not attend a much more intimate second half of the “family-like” services.
They said the final proceedings were at The Courts of Remembrance which is a “special, more secluded area.”
“That part was only attended by Matthew’s family and closest friends. Less than 20 people,” the source said.
The initial services were also exclusive, with only around 40 people showing up to pay their respects, according to the insider.
“After the services, friends left while his family and few others took a car up to the area where the coffin was taken and then carried into The Courts of Remembrance,” they said.
Other attendants included Perry’s heartbroken mother Suzanne Morrison, 84, former Dateline reporter stepfather Keith, 76, and his father John Perry, 82.
It’s reported that Peter Gabriel’s song “Don’t Give Up” played at the end of the service.
The song includes the now-heartwrenching lyrics: “No fight left or so it seems, I am a man whose dreams have all deserted, I’ve changed my face, I’ve changed my name, But no one wants you when you lose.”
FINAL MOMENTS
Friends of Matthew have insisted he was clean and sober in the final years of his life and was known for being active at home in the Palisades.
The star’s longtime barber, Pierre Johnson Jr, exclusively told The U.S. Sun that he had even tried to cut back on smoking which was his “last bad habit.”
“He had a home gym inside of his place in the Palisades, and I knew he’d taken up pickleball again,” Pierre said.
“It was his last bad habit, he was so keen to quit, it’s why he took up pickleball.
“It was enjoyable, you didn’t need to be some gym-crazy person in order to have fun doing it. And it’s cardio.”
He went on: “His fingers were brown from smoking. He even went to see a hypnotist to try and quit. Often we smoke because we’re stressed.
“On his last day, he played pickle ball, that’s the lungs. I wonder if that had something to do with [his death].”
Pierre said he never saw Matthew drink an alcoholic beverage and believed he was clean and sober in his final years after opening up fully about his struggles in his memoir.
“His story was changing lives, and I was so glad to see that he was on the other side of [his addiction],” he said.
“To hear that he overcame, that’s what everyone wants. He was ticking them off.”
Elsewhere in his interview, Pierre admitted that Matthew didn’t want to be alone but struggled to find a woman he could trust and that the actor was planning his TV comeback.
HORROR STRUGGLE
Matthew spoke candidly about battling addiction in his memoir.
In 2018, at the age of 49, he suffered a gastrointestinal perforation as a result of his extreme opiate usage.
He was given just a two percent chance of living after being comatose for two weeks.
Matthew revealed that at the height of his addiction, he was consuming about 55 Vicodin pills a day and weighed just 128 pounds.
He did a stint in rehab but continued to struggle.
Hours before Matthew was found in his jacuzzi, he had played racquet sport pickleball with a female friend, who revealed the star had felt unwell and “fatigued” for the past week.
Matthew was believed to have drowned, but first responders were scrambled for a cardiac arrest.
Authorities found anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, and a drug for chronic pulmonary disease at his home, but everything was properly labeled and stored.