Matthew Perry's Ex Maeve Quinlan Admits He 'Really Thought Fame Would Make It All Better' Amid Mental Health Struggles

Matthew Perry's ex-girlfriend Maeve Quinlan opened up on the beginnings of their relationship and her knowledge of the Friends star's mental health and addiction struggles.

In an interview published on Thursday, March 28, the 59-year-old actress admitted she initially knew Perry as simply "the cute guy" that she saw by the elevator at their shared L.A. apartment building.

She didn't realize he was an actor until she saw him on television and yelled to her roommate, "That's 'Cute Guy By The Elevator'!"

"I had the biggest crush on him," she confessed. "But I never saw him again because by the time the show was picked up, he had — like every actor does — moved to the Hollywood Hills."

Quinlan shared they later reconnected at a charity tennis event in 2002 and they eventually "embarked on a romantic relationship." She clarified he'd been "100 percent sober" at the time and had been "very open" with her about his prior issues.

"That was his one fully sober year, and we were practically inseparable," she recalled. "One of the reasons he liked being with me was that I didn’t do drugs."

The pair split in 2003, but the "South of Nowhere" actress said they "seamlessly" became "best friends," gushing that even at the "height of his fame" he remained the same guy she'd met years ago.

"He was the guy every guy wanted to hang out with and every girl wanted to date. He was the guy next door," she continued. "He was kind of unsure of himself. He wasn’t, believe it or not, completely confident with girls."

Quinlan said that throughout their friendship she had "no idea how much he was internally struggling because his main focus was always making other people happy and laughing."

"He really thought the fame would make it all better but it didn’t," she added.

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

As OK! previously reported, Perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub at his L.A. home in October 2023. He was tragically unable to be revived.

His cause of death was ruled to be acute effects of ketamine with drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine listed as contributing factors.

Quinlan spoke with Soap Opera Digest about her relationship with Perry.