Matthew Perry, Before his passing, reportedly planned to establish a foundation to help others battling with substance abuse.
People on Monday reported that the “Friends” star, who was in recovery from addiction, wished to assist others in overcoming drug and alcohol abuse.
Perry’s friends and loved ones, according to the outlet, are still hoping to make his goal a reality after the actor died in an apparent drowning on Saturday. He was 54.
According to People, the “Whole Nine Yards” star previously founded Perry House, a men’s sober living facility that he ran from 2013 to 2015.
Throughout his decades-long struggle with substance abuse, Perry admitted to having been in and out of rehab 15 times in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
The actor went on to discuss his addiction to Vicodin after a 1997 jet ski accident, revealing that at one point he was consuming up to 55 tablets every day.
Last year, while marketing his bombshell memoir, he told the New York Times that he had spent about $10 million trying to get sober over the years.
He also recalled a near-death incident at the age of 49, when his colon burst due to opioid addiction.
At the time, he was in a coma for two weeks and was hospitalised for five months
“The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,” he told People in October 2022. “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 said that he was one of five persons on life support that night, and the others did not survive.
“My therapist said, ‘The next time you think about taking Oxycontin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life, and a little window opened, and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore,” he said.
The actor was seen going out to dinner with a pal in Los Angeles a few days before he passed away.
Over the past two days, many celebrities and former co-stars, including his “Friends” castmates, have posted condolences for Perry.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc wrote in a statement to People Monday.
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
