Keith Morrison is speaking out about his stepson Matthew Perry’s death for the first time.
The Dateline host, 76, opened up to Today’s Hoda Kotb on the Wednesday, March 13 episode of her “Making Space” podcast, noting that the grief he feels over Perry’s passing is something he lives with “every day.” He explained: “It’s with you all the time. And there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and it’s not easy, especially for his mom.”
Morrison tied the knot with Perry’s mother, Suzanne, in 1981 when the Friends star was 12 years old. “Toward the end of his life, they were closer than I’ve seen them for decades and texting each other constantly,” he told Kotb, 59, on Monday. “So, he was happy, and he said so, and he hadn’t said that for a long time. It’s a source of comfort, but also, you know, he didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair.”
Perry died at age 54 in October 2023 after he was found in his Los Angeles home jacuzzi. The L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed in December 2023 that Perry, who had reportedly been sober for over a year before his death, passed away from “the acute effects of ketamine.”
According to Morrison, Perry previously noted that although people would be “shocked” if he “suddenly died,” he said “not too many people would be surprised. And he was right.”
The news did not come as a total shock for Morrison, himself, as he explained, “It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might.”
Perry’s struggle with addiction is something Morrison said “he felt like he was beating, but you never beat it, and he knew that, too.”
Since the actor’s death, Morrison and Perry’s friends and family launched the Matthew Perry Foundation in his honor. “The goal is to do whatever can be done to help organizations rescue people in difficult situations and get them some help,” he told Kotb.
Kotb, for her part, told her Today cohosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin on Monday that she was “afraid” to discuss Perry’s death with Morrison on her podcast. But was “honored that he chose to do that.”
Following Perry’s death, his family wrote in a statement that they were “heartbroken” by the loss. “Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend,” the family told People in October 2023. “You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love.”
One month later, Morrison encouraged fans to donate to the Matthew Perry Foundation in honor of Giving Tuesday. “This is not the sort of thing I commonly do, this pitch. But this year is different,” he wrote alongside a link to the organization’s website via X in November 2023. “And tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Do what you can; he would have been grateful.”
