Matthew Perry Revealed How Jennifer Aniston Brought Him Back to Life After Years of Being Lost

It’s been 18 years since Friends, one of the most iconic shows ever made, aired its last episode, and fans still love and follow the lives of each cast member. We worry about them and are happy whenever we see them appear together on or off-screen. That’s why when Matthew Perry, aka Chandler Bing, opened up about how his co-star, Jennifer Aniston, helped him through his darkest times, we couldn’t hold back our feelings. It is a story of pure friendship, love, and support. And could we be any more touched by it?

Matthew and Jennifer were the only 2 cast members who knew each other before the series.

The way they met could’ve become a plot for a Friends episode. They met 3 years before the show through mutual friends, and Matthew was so astonished by her that he tried to ask her out. “I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and liked her, and I got the sense she was intrigued too — maybe it was going to be something,” said Matthew remembering the beginning of their relationship.

Jennifer turned him down but said she’d love to be friends with him, and so that’s the way it was.

Their friendship continued on set.

What followed were 10 years of the 6 cast members spending every day by each other’s side. And the bond they formed there was one of a kind, and turned into a life-long friendship. “We all went through something significant together, and that’s a strong bond,” said Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe in the series. “As you get older, you realize, oh, you don’t have that with just about everybody.”

But it wasn’t always bright for Matthew, and his co-star was the one to help him out.

Sudden fame, along with a huge workload, turned out to not be easy for Matthew, and he went into a dark period of self-destructive behavior. He described that period as being “in a dark room” and “completely alone.”

It’s hard to imagine the possible consequences of this if it weren’t for his co-stars. Jennifer Aniston stepped in to lend her friend a hand and she confronted Matthew directly. That moment was scary for him, Matthew confessed. However, at the same time, he was very thankful to Jennifer. “She was the one who reached out the most, you know. I’m really grateful to her for that,” he remembered.

The entire cast was there for him.

Matthew was trying to find an escape in his work, but it didn’t seem to help. “I thought being funny all the time was how I would get through,” he said. “I thought [Friends] was going to fix everything. It didn’t.”

But even if Friends itself was not the ultimate remedy Perry thought it would be — his true friends, the entire cast, were there for him. Courteney, Lisa, David, and Matt, along with Jennifer, were supportive, patient, and caring. “It’s like penguins,” Matthew said himself. “When one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up and walk around until that penguin can walk on its own.” And that was exactly what the cast did for him.

He finally decided to speak up.

For all these years, Matthew hasn’t wanted to remember that period of his life, but now he is releasing a memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, where he openly speaks about everything he’s gone through. He decided that it was the right time and that his story could help others not to repeat his own mistakes.

“It was important to me to do something that would help people,” says Matthew.

What was the most touching thing about Matthew’s story?