Matthew Perry has spent years overcoming his addictions (Picture: REX)
Matthew Perry has revealed he would routinely raid bathroom cabinets while viewing houses in the hopes of finding prescription drugs.
The actor, 53, opened up about his battle with addiction in a new interview, admitting it got so bad during the height of his fame playing Chandler Bing on Friends that he would steal drugs from open houses.
He told ABC’s Diane Sawyer: ‘On Sundays, I would go to open houses and go to the bathrooms in the open house and see what pills they had in there and steal them.
‘And I think they thought, “Well, there’s no way that Chandler came in and stole from us.”’
Matthew has been open about his battles with alcohol and drugs in his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, and claimed people could tell which phase of his addiction he was in from his weight and facial hair on Friends.
He explained: ‘You can track the trajectory for my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season.
He didn’t think people would think Chandler Bing from Friends would steal from their bathroom cabinets (Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
‘When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills; when I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills.’
The actor also admitted he had ‘two percent’ chance of surviving after his colon burst from opioid abuse, leaving him in hospital fighting for his life for weeks.
Matthew spent five months in hospital in 2018 after a gastrointestinal perforation, and told People Magazine: ‘The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live.
’I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.’
He estimates he spent around $9million (£7.75million) on getting clean and sober after going to rehab 15 times over the years.
Worried about drugs?
Frank offers confidential advice about drugs and addiction (email [email protected], message 82111 or call 0300 123 6600) or the NHS has information about getting help.
Adfam has local groups for families affected by drugs and alcohol and DrugFam offers phone and email support to people affected by other people’s drug or alcohol misuse.
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‘I think they thought, “Well, there’s no way that Chandler came in and stole from us.”’