Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, and Lisa Kudrow are remembering their co-star and longtime friend, Matthew Perry.
At the heels of Matt LeBlanc and Courtney Cox paying tribute to the late ‘Friends’ actor, the three other main cast members have also taken to social media to share heartfelt messages on Matthew’s heartbreaking death.
Matthew passed away at the age of 54 on October 28 in an apparent drowning in his home.
Two days after he died, the cast of Friends released a joint statement. Now, each has been releasing individual statements, with Matt and Courtney leading the pack on Tuesday (November 14). Soon after on Wednesday (November 15) the rest followed suit.
Jennifer wrote on Instagram:
“Oh boy this one has cut deep… Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.”
She went on:
“For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’ he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been pouring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever. I found one text that he sent me out of nowhere one day. It says it all.”
One text exchange she included had a photo Matthew sent her from their very early days on Friends, writing:
“Making you laugh just made my day. It made my day :)”
To this, Jennifer replied:
“Awww… the first of THOUSANDS of times.”
Jennifer heart-wrenchingly concluded:
“Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying ‘could you BE any crazier?’
Rest little brother. You always made my day…”
David began his note to “Matty” by writing of his generosity and heart:
“Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity. 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. And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers.”
He included a photo from a Friends episode, and said:
“This photo is from one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time. I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around – ‘Could there BE any more clouds?’”
Lisa was the final of the five main stars to release a statement, writing on Instagram:
“Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts. Then… You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that.”
She continued with a poignant and incredibly moving list of thank you’s to Matthew:
“Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY.
Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’
Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant.
Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have.
Thank you for trusting me.
Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you.
Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
Our thoughts are with Matthew’s loved ones during this difficult time.
