Matthew Perry made millions of people laugh as Chandler Bing, but behind the scenes, he was fighting a battle that cost him far more than most fans ever knew. According to his sister, Mia Perry Bowick, the FRIENDS star spent a staggering $7 million over his lifetime trying to get sober
Bowick shared the revelation in The One About Matthew Perry, a new three-part Netflix documentary series directed by Mary Robertson. The series looks back at Perry’s rise to fame, his personal life, and his long fight with addiction, told through the people who knew him best.
Perry was always open about his struggles with alcohol and painkillers, even detailing them in his memoir. Sadly, he died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54, after being found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The medical examiner later ruled that his death was caused by the acute effects of ketamine.
Matthew Perry’s Worsening Addiction Came at a High Cost
In the documentary, Mia Perry Bowick explains that Matthew Perry never stopped trying to get better. He went in and out of rehab many times, and the price of treatment kept climbing with each new attempt.
In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry himself revealed that he had been to rehab 15 times and spent years of his life in treatment centers . But no matter how hard he fought, his addiction only seemed to tighten its grip as the years went by. Bowick shared in the documentary:
Overall, the trajectory of his addiction was getting worse, and that’s kind of what we know about that disease: that it does get worse the longer it goes on. And so whether it was how much money he was spending on rehab or the amount of pills he was taking every day, or what the consequences were of him using, they were escalating and escalating. You know he spent $7 million over his lifetime trying to get sober. And that number is staggering.
Bowick’s words show how addiction affected every part of her brother’s life. It was not just his health that suffered. The money, the number of pills, and the damage caused by his drug use all kept growing at the same time.
The $7 million figure also proves just how determined Perry was to beat the disease. Few people could afford that much treatment, and even fewer would keep going after so many setbacks. Yet Perry never gave up, which makes his story all the more heartbreaking for those who loved him.
Matthew Perry’s Sister Reveals His Struggle During FRIENDS Filming
Matthew Perry’s addiction did not stay off set. Mia Perry Bowick revealed that his struggles grew especially serious while he was filming Seasons 5, 6, and 7 of FRIENDS, which aired between 1998 and 2001. At the time, the show was at the height of its popularity.
According to Bowick, Perry worked hard to keep his problems hidden from his co-stars and the crew. He tried to find a careful balance. But as his addiction got worse, keeping up that act became much harder. Between takes, he was dealing with painful withdrawal symptoms. She shared:
Around Seasons five, six, and seven, we were starting to hear that he was having a very hard time managing his substance use while also filming Friends. He didn’t want people knowing that he was on something. So he would take just enough to feel okay, but not enough to look high, which got trickier the further along you got. He would need to manage his withdrawal symptoms, tremors, and stuff between takes.
It is a sharp contrast to what audiences saw on screen. While fans watched Chandler crack jokes and fall in love with Monica, the actor playing him was privately fighting just to make it through each day. Perry admitted in a 2016 radio interview that he does not remember three years of the show, somewhere between Seasons 3 and 6
What are your thoughts on Bowick’s comments? Let us know in the comments below!
The One About Matthew Perry premieres on Netflix on October 27, 2026.
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