NEWSJulia Roberts 'Appreciates What She Has' After 'Heartbreaking' Death of Ex-Boyfriend Matthew Perry
Julia Roberts broke her silence on the tragic death of ex-boyfriend Matthew Perry.
During a recent interview, the 56-year-old reflected on the time she guest starred on Friends in 1996, which occurred during her three-month relationship with the late sitcom star.
Julia Roberts spoke out for the first time since Matthew Perry's passing.
"The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking," Roberts expressed to a news publication of Perry, who died at age 54 on Saturday, October 28. "I think that, you know, it just helps all of us to just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can."
Recalling her short cameo on Friends as a childhood classmate of Perry's character, Chandler Bing, Roberts admitted she has "all good thoughts and feelings" when it comes to her brief time on the show.
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts dated for three months in 1996.
"They were all so welcoming to me as just a kind of a one-off character and it was a really fun time," she explained more than a year after Perry revealed in his 2022 memoir, Friends Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, that him and Roberts had been in a "three-month-long courtship" at the time the episode was filmed more than 27 years ago.
In his bestselling book, Perry — who unexpectedly lost his life after an apparent drowning in his backyard jacuzzi — went into detail about his short fling with Roberts.
At the time of their fling in 1996, the actress appeared on an episode of 'Friends.'
"I sent her three dozen red roses and the card read: 'The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers,'" he shared.
The Fools Rush In actor continued: "Three or four times a day I would sit by my fax machine and watch the piece of paper slowly revealing her next missive. I was so excited that some nights I would find myself out at some party sharing a flirtatious exchange with an attractive woman and cut the conversation short so I could race home and see if a new fax had arrived."
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- Jennifer Aniston's Pain: Actress Is Taking Matthew Perry's Death Harder Than Her 'Friends' Costars, Source Reveals
- Courteney Cox Insists Matthew Perry Relied On Humor 'For His Own Self-Worth' While Filming 'Friends': He 'Struggled For A While'
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"It was like she was placed on this planet to make the world smile, and now, in particular, me. I was grinning like some 15-year-old on his first date," Perry gushed regarding his feelings at the time of his romance with Roberts.
Perry noted he and the Pretty Woman actress were already an item by the time the episode was filmed, though unfortunately, their relationship didn't last much longer after shooting concluded.
Matthew Perry devastatingly died at age 54 on Saturday, October 28.
"Two months later, I was single," the 17 Again star wrote. "Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable."
"Instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts. She might have considered herself slumming it with a TV guy, and TV guy was now breaking up with her. I can’t begin to describe the look of confusion on her face," he revealed.
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Entertainment Tonight spoke with Roberts after Perry's passing.
