NEWSMatthew Perry Admits He Dumped '90s Girlfriend Julia Roberts Because He Would 'Never Be Enough' For Her
A walk down memory lane. Matthew Perry is looking back on his relationship with '90s girlfriend Julia Roberts, admitting he broke up with the actress because he felt he would never be enough for her.
The Friends alum got candid in his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, about how his own mental turmoil led to the Hollywood couple ending things after a mere two months.
"Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me," he wrote in an excerpt published by the Times UK on Saturday, October 22, explaining that he felt the Pretty Woman star was "slumming it" by dating him.
"Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable," Perry confessed. "So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts."
The 17 Again actor, 53, recalled how Roberts took the breakup, saying he couldn't "begin to describe the look of confusion on her face" after he called things off.
Perry and Roberts' whirlwind romance came to be after the Notting Hill actress insisted she would "only do the show” if she got to be a part of his character's storyline. The actor, who played Chandler Bing on Friends, then tried to "woo" the esteemed star by sending her dozens of roses and sweet messages — including a paper on quantum physics.
“Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a gift: bagels — lots and lots of bagels. … I did let her in, both figuratively and literally, and a relationship began,” Perry explained.
By the time Roberts, 54, had a cameo on an episode of the hit sitcom, she and Perry had already started dating. However, during the time that Perry was starring on one of the biggest TV shows, he was battling drug and alcohol addiction — which took a major toll on every aspect of his life.
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Perry starred on the beloved show from 1994-2004 and during that time, he had to go to rehab two times, one of which being right after filming the iconic moment his character married Monica Geller, played by Courteney Cox.
After filming the Season 7 finale, Perry told New York Times on Sunday, October 23, that he was immediately "driven back to the treatment center … in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician."
“[I was] at the height of my highest point in ‘Friends,’ the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show,” the Scrubs star said, confessing that his "exhausting" opioid addiction ruined his ability to embrace his stardom on the NBC sitcom.
As OK! reported, Perry estimated that he "spent $9 million or something trying to get sober," throughout his lifelong alcoholism battle that started at age 14.
After taking "55 Vicodin a day" at the height of his addiction, in addition to "Methadone, Xanax" and "a full quart of vodka," as well as "nearly" dying a few years ago when his colon burst due to his drug use, Perry has now been sober for 18 months.
Perry’s memoir is out on Tuesday, November 1.
Page Six reported on Perry's excerpt.
