On the one-year anniversary of Matthew Perry’s death, his family is remembering his life and legacy.
In an exclusive interview with the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie from the town in Canada where Perry grew up, the Friends’ star’s mother Suzanne Morrison, stepfather Keith Morrison and his younger sisters, Caitlin Morrison, Madeline Morrison and Emily Morrison, opened up about their lasting love for Perry.
“Even now, something funny will happen — I’ll see something funny or something ridiculous on the news, l go to call him,” Suzanne recalled. “I have more freedom of a relationship with him now than I ever did. And then it hits me, then hits me so hard that he’s not there.”
“We go to the cemetery,” Keith recalled, “[and Suzanne will] sit there and have a chat with him for awhile.”
Asked what she misses most about him, Madeline said “everything,” noting how the two shared “little jokes” together. “He was always there,” she shared. Caitlin added, “It was always like a jubilant thing when he would come over.”
“He was grumpy all the time, but he was funny all the time,” said an emotional Emily, after taking time to collect herself. “When the people that he loved succeeded or they were scared, he would do anything for you.”
“Really all he ever wanted was to love and be loved,’ said Emily. “He struggled so much to feel peace and I think he got to a place where he did.”
Perry died at the age of 54 on Oct. 28, 2023 following an accidental drug overdose. The actor had been open about his decades-long struggle with addiction, writing in his 2022 memoir about his time in and out of recovery over the years.
It was an often emotionally tumultuous ride his family saw first-hand. “Even when he was struggling in dark times, we were always proud of him,” said Caitlin. “We were always proud of the fact that he kept fighting and that he made it a big focus of his life to help other people.”
“He was always very lonely in his soul,” Suzanne recalled. “I’m a very lucky woman, but there was one glitch; there was one problem. I couldn’t conquer it. I couldn’t help him.”
That’s a lesson Suzanne had to learn the hard way. While chatting with Guthrie, she got emotional as she hinted at some of the guilt she’s carried, stressing that she now knows, “You’ve got to stop blaming yourself because it tears you up.”
Suzanne Morrison on the ‘Today’ show.
TODAYshow/X
Instead, Suzanne, her family members and Perry’s friends are channeling the pain of their loss into good, carrying out the late star’s legacy through their work with the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada.
The organization, of which Caitlin is the executive director, is committed to helping others through recovery. (There is also the U.S.-based Matthew Perry Foundation, which supports the same mission, to help those with the disease of addiction.)
“What [Matthew] taught the world is that no amount of money will cure an addict,” said Keith. “It needs something else, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
“If it doesn’t stop, we’re going to lose so many million people,” Suzanne said.
Keith Morrison on the ‘Today’ show.
TODAYshow/X
Before his death, Perry had been receiving Ketamine infusion, a “dissociative anesthetic” with “some hallucinogenic effects,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, that has been used as a treatment for depression and anxiety.
Authorities say the drug turned into an addiction for Perry, and was one of the leading causes of his death when the results of his autopsy were revealed in December 2023. Other contributing factors, per the report, included drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects, referencing a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.
Perry’s family told Today that they were aware the actor had been using Ketamine. But as Keith said, “we didn’t know how much of it he was taking.”
Matthew Perry with sister Emily and mom Suzanne.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
In fact, Keith stressed that he thought Perry was still sober. “It certainly seemed like it to me, that he was — though he had been treated with Ketamine, that it hadn’t turned into something that he couldn’t control,” the Dateline host said. “Although, you know, he was a guy who would make decisions. ‘I can handle this. I can do this. I can tell you what’s right. I know the whole system inside and out, I know what the drug will do to me.’ So there was that worry of, ‘What’s he really doing?’”
“I don’t even know if in his mind he had relapsed,” said Madeline, a point with which the family agreed.
Caitlin Morrison on the ‘Today’ show.
TODAYshow/X
The California branch of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles Police Department has since opened an investigation around the circumstances surrounding Perry’s death.
On Aug. 15, five people were charged in connection with the death, including two doctors (Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia), a woman known as “The Ketamine Queen” (Jasveen Sangha) as well as Perry’s personal live-in assistant (Kenneth Iwamasa).
Three of those people have since pleaded guilty. A trial has been set for March 4 for Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded not guilty.
Discussing the cases, Suzanne noted that she’s “thrilled” there’s been some accountability — a testament with which her husband, Keith, agrees.
“What I’m hoping, and I think the agencies that they’ve got involved in this are hoping, is that people who have put themselves in the business of supplying people with the drugs that will kill them, that they are now on notice,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what your professional credentials are. You’re going down, baby.”
Madeline Morrison on the ‘Today’ show.
TODAYshow/X
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Elsewhere in the conversation, Perry’s family said that they all still feel connected to late actor. “I don’t think there’s a single person in this room who doesn’t talk to him,” said Caitlin, noting they had all stopped to watch the Northern Lights the other evenings — a sight that reminded them of Perry. “You can feel divinity in that moment.”
Yet, they still feel the heartache of his absence.
“I don’t think grief ever goes away,” said Caitlin. “I have found a huge amount of meaning in thinking about the fact that this isn’t our tragedy. This happens to people every day.”
Emily Morrison on the ‘Today’ show.
TODAYshow/X
Ultimately, the family hopes that by sharing their story, it’ll be helpful to others going through similar grief.
“[There’s] nothing special about us especially the fact that we have an extremely remarkable famous family member who went through it,” said Keith. “And people notice and people come up to us all the time and say, ‘Sorry for your loss.’ Well, millions of people have had that loss and we’re very aware of that.”
“This is not about us, it’s about those millions of people,” he added. “It’s a hurting world and it needs some help.”
Today airs weekdays beginning at 7 a.m. ET on NBC.