Jennifer Aniston has paid homage to her Friends co-star Matthew Perry, who passed away on October 28th at his home in Los Angeles. The actor was 54.
Aniston starred as Rachel Green in the hit series alongside Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing. “Oh boy this one has cut deep… 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,” she began her tribute by writing.
“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. 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,” she continued.
The Morning Star added: “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 concluded: “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?’” she concluded. “Rest little brother. You always made my day…”
Her comments arrive after Matt LeBlanc and Courteney Cox shared their own individual tributes to Perry on November 14th.
LeBlanc wrote: “It was an honour 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.”
Meanwhile, Cox said: “I am so grateful for every moment I had with you, Matty, and I miss you every day. When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share.”
The surviving five lead members of the main Friends cast previously shared a joint statement following Perry’s death. They wrote: “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family. There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
As of yet, no cause of death has been revealed for Perry after the initial post-mortem was deemed inconclusive. The actor’s passing is not being treated as suspicious.
See Aniston’s tribute below.