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"I loved that Matthew I first met and the one at the end," the Friends alum says of Perry, who died in October 2023, while also sharing how the NBC sitcom's cast "worked really hard" at their "six-way relationship" off-screen.
Lisa Kudrow is opening up about her Friends costar Matthew Perry's tragic passing a little over a year following his death.
While appearing on the latest episode of Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, the actress shared what "comforted" her about Perry's death in October 2023.
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View Story"This will sound odd. I'm more comforted that he was happy the day he died," Kudrow said. "He got to die happy. And to me, that was a gift."
Shepard -- who has been open about his past struggles with addiction -- shared that he knew Perry "through sobriety." The late actor battled with drug and alcohol addiction.
"What addicts put everyone [who] love us through is rough," Shepard said. "... I would be grateful to get to go back and see it before it had taken its toll."
After the podcast host noted that he feels "sad" and has a "lot of compassion" for what Kudrow is going through and also seemingly went through as someone who loved a person with addiction, to which Kudrow noted that it's "complicated."
"I loved that Matthew I first met and the one at the end, because God love him, this is you, and I love you," she said. "I understand, and so did he."
Kudrow, 61, Perry, and her Friends costars -- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer -- of course, rose to fame on Friends, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
Kudrow -- who starred as Phoebe Buffay -- revealed the cast put in the "work" to make sure that they created a strong friendship off-screen to portray a close-knit friend group on screen.
"It was great, we really did get along," she recalled. "We also worked really hard at being friends. That six-way relationship took some work and we did it."
"If someone said something or did something, it didn't get too big, because it was, 'Can I talk to you?' -- usually not me, because I had to learn to be, 'Can I talk to you about something?' because I never knew that was allowed!" she continued.
"But I saw it modeled really well by Courteney and Jennifer and Matt. Respectful communication," she added.
Perry died at the age 54 in October 2023, after he was found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office revealed Perry died from "the acute effects of ketamine."
While Perry's passing was ruled accidental in January 2024, the investigation was reopened and five people have been federally charged in connection with his death.
Of the five charged, three of them -- Dr. Mark Chavez, assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and a man named Eric Fleming -- pleaded guilty to drug charges.
Per the Department of Justice, Fleming admitted to obtaining and distributing the ketamine that killed Perry. Iwamasa reportedly pleaded guilty to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including multiple injections on the day the actor died. Chavez, meanwhile, allegedly admitted to selling ketamine to Dr. Salvador Plasencia -- another doctor involved in the matter.
Jasveen Sangha, known as "The Ketamine Queen," was also arrested for her role in Perry's death. Plasencia and Sangha have pleaded not guilty to their charges, however, which include conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine.
