Remembering Matthew Perry 1 Year After His Death: Everything His Family & 'Friends' Costars Have Said About Him

Matthew Perry's younger half-sister Caitlin Morrison — daughter of Keith Morrison and Suzanne Morrison — shared her grief in her first interview since her sibling's death due to the "acute effects of ketamine."

"He had this ability to fill up a room with light," she told Hello! "When people were in a room with him, he had this magnetic energy. Everybody just had a smile on their face and they clung to everything he said."

Caitlin, 43, revealed she is remembering the late Friends actor through an expansion of The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada. She noted that honoring his memory through her work as the foundation's executive director "feels like I'm sitting right next to Matthew."

All of Matthew's Friends costars immediately paid tribute to him after his death.

In November 2023, Courteney Cox expressed how grateful she was to have Matthew in her life.

"When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now, here's one of my favorites," she shared on Instagram alongside a deleted scene that showed their characters sleeping together in the series.

She explained, "To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one-night fling in London. But because of the audience's reaction, it became the beginning of their love story. In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind."

Courteney then told CBS Sunday Morning that Matthew "visits me a lot, if we believe in that," adding they still talk as she "senses" he "is around for sure."

"Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity," David Schwimmer captioned a November 2023 post. "I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes."

During his appearance on the September 17 episode of the "Origins with Cush Jumbo" podcast, David revealed Matthew was "reserved" with him while they were filming together.

Jennifer Aniston has been the most vocal Friends cast member, sharing her grief online and in her interviews. Two weeks after Matthew's death, she said the loss "cut deep" since saying goodbye to her costar "has been an insane wave of emotions that I've never experienced before."

She also shared the text messages they exchanged and asked fans to honor him on Giving Tuesday.

In December 2023, Jennifer told Variety how good Matthew was doing, adding, "He was healthy. He had quit smoking. He was getting in shape. He was happy — that's all I know."

Julia Roberts, who briefly dated Matthew in 1996, reacted to Matthew's death in an interview.

"The sudden passing of anybody so young is heartbreaking," she said of Matthew while speaking with Entertainment Tonight. "I think that, you know, it just helps all of us just appreciate what we have and to keep going in a positive way as best we can."

After arrests were made in connection with Matthew's death, his stepfather, Keith, released a statement in which he said he and his family "look forward to justice taking its course."

Keith told Fox News Digital, "We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew's death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously."

"We're hoping unscrupulous suppliers of dangerous drugs will get the message," he added.

During a Q&A session at her Have I Told You This Already? book tour, Lauren Graham opened up about her friendship with Matthew and how his death was still "really hard to believe."

"While he was not technically ever a boyfriend, he was an almost in my life," Lauren said, calling Matthew "a friend and a constant."

She added, "We would stretch for a year, then he would come back in my life, and he had just come back in my life last year."

According to Lauren, The West Wing actor gifted her a pickleball set for her birthday along with a card that said, "Be older."

Lisa Kudrow revealed she started tuning into Friends after his death.

"Honestly, I wasn't able to watch it because it's too embarrassing to watch yourself. But if I make it about Matthew, then that's OK," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "And it's just celebrating how hilarious he was — and that is what I want to remember [about him]."

In August, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman sat down for an interview with The Times, during which she explained how she would like Matthew to be memorialized following his death.

"Two things come to mind: One of them is to donate to drug treatment centers — let's fight the disease," said Marta. "And the second way is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died like that but as a man who was hilariously funny and brought joy to everybody."

The first Friends cast member to share a tribute, Matt LeBlanc wrote on Instagram, "Matthew, It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye. The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life."

He continued, "It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I'll never forget you. Never. Spread your wings and fly brother you're finally free. Much love. And I guess you're keeping the 20 bucks you owe me."

Matthew's Sexual Perversity in Chicago costar Minnie Driver wrote an essay for The Guardian in December 2023, in which she showered him with positive words despite his past struggles.

"The thing about him was he was like a light," she said of Matthew. "He was one of those people who just made other people feel good."

The Good Will Hunting star added, "Somehow, they don't suck you down into their sadness, or their pain, and I know now that his pain was great."

Matthew's mom detailed their last moments together ahead of the first anniversary of his death.

"He went through a period, interestingly enough, just before he died when he was showing me one of his new houses," Suzanne said on Today preview on October 25. "He came up to me and he said, ‘I love you so much, and I'm so happy to be with you now.' It was almost as though it was a premonition or something. I didn't think about it at the time, but I thought, ‘How long has it been since we've had a conversation like that? It's been years.'"

She added, "It was almost as though it was a premonition or something. I didn't think about it at the time, but I thought, ‘How long has it been since we've had a conversation like that?' It's been years."

Ahead of his appearance at the Cirque du Soleil's opening night in Los Angeles, Tate Donovan shared it hasn't been easy to tune into the sitcom after his death.

"That is just so tough, because of the whole cast, Matt Perry was sort of the leader," he told TooFab. "He was the funniest, and he was so kind, and he was especially nice to me. When I did my five episodes, he was just so supportive, and he was the kind of actor that would watch the other actors' scenes."

Donovan recalled how hardworking Matthew was on the set of the series, calling him a "creative, funny, smart human being."