Jennifer Aniston opened up about her love for fellow costar Matthew Perry two weeks after his tragic death.
“Oh boy this one has cut deep,” Aniston, 54, shared via Instagram on Wednesday, November 15. “Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.”
She continued, “For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’ he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been pouring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever. I found one text that he sent me out of nowhere one day. It says it all. (See the second slide … ).”
Aniston shared a sweet text exchange she had with Perry.
“Making you laugh just made my day. It made my day :),” Perry texted Aniston, alongside a photo of them together. She replied, “Awww the first of THOUSANDS of times … ”
Aniston posted the same black-and-white photo that he had sent.
“Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying ‘could you BE any crazier?'” Aniston concluded. “Rest little brother. You always made my day.”
After news of Perry’s death broke on October 28, the core cast of Friends — including Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc — all paid tribute to their longtime friend.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just castmates. We are a family,” they said in a joint statement to Us Weekly. “There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss. In time we will continue to say more, as and when we are able. For now our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
Days later, the five stars gathered together alongside Perry’s family at his funeral on November 3. The service was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills neighborhood, near the Warner Bros. Studios where Friends was filmed.
They later individually took to social media to pay tribute to their late friend.
“I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” Cox, 59, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, November 14. “When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now, here’s one of my favorites.”
Cox proceeded to recall a season 4 episode of the NBC sitcom in which her character, Monica, and Chandler (Perry) first sleep together in London for Ross Geller’s (Schwimmer) wedding.
“To give it a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one-night fling in London,” the actress shared. “But because of the audience’s reaction, it was the beginning of their love story. In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind. 🤍🕊️.”
Hours earlier, LeBlanc, 56, also penned an emotional tribute to Perry.
“Matthew, it is with a heavy heart I say goodbye. The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life,” he wrote via Instagram alongside several photos of the duo on the set of Friends. “It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never. Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love. And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
Perry — who is best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends — was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home on October 28. He was 54. While an initial autopsy was completed, Perry’s cause of death has been “deferred” pending a toxicology report.
Aside from the cast, Friends cocreators Marta Kauffman and David Crane also opened up about Perry’s death — and the difficulties of grieving such a tragic loss.
“I was just in utter shock. My first impulse was to text him, honestly. And then deep sadness,” Kauffman, 67, told Today on November 1. “It’s hard to grasp. You know, one minute he’s here and happy, and then poof. And doing good in the world. Really doing good in the world.”
