'Friends' star Matthew Perry refused to leave show during addiction struggles despite offer to quit

In the days following the arrest of five people in connection with Matthew Perry's 2023 death, we're learning the actor was given the ultimate out earlier in his career: an opportunity to leave his hit show "Friends" due to his addiction struggles.

Co-creator of "Friends" David Crane said in an interview with The Times that Perry had been doing drugs at certain points during the show's run, something the late actor had been very open about. He said, "By the time we became aware of it, we were already a family on a lot of levels."

"There was a point where we said to him: ‘Do you want to stop [being in the show]?’ And he was adamantly like: ‘No, this is really important to me.’"

MATTHEW PERRY DEATH PROBE REVEALS ACTOR WAS MANIPULATED BY 'LEECHES' IN HIS INNER CIRCLE

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Perry famously admitted in 2022 that staying on the show likely saved his life.

"The fact that I would trade it all to not have this disease is true," Perry told People magazine of the fame. "But I don't belittle how fun the experience has been on ‘Friends.' And the money was amazing. Just the creative experience of being on ‘Friends’ probably saved my life."

Perry said his castmates, who were aware of his problem, were very supportive.

"They were understanding, and they were patient," he remembered. "It's like penguins. In nature, when one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up and walk around until that penguin can walk on its own. And that's kind of what the cast did for me."

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The show's other creator, Marta Kauffman, told The Times how she'd like Perry to be memorialized.

"Two things come to mind [about how to celebrate him]: one of them is to donate to drug treatment centers – let’s fight the disease. 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."

Perry, whose storied career was sometimes muddled by his substance abuse problems, was already deceased by the time Los Angeles firefighters reached his Pacific Palisades home in October 2023. A cause of death was previously deferred for the actor, but later identified as "acute effects of Ketamine" in December 2023. 

Coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects were also listed as contributing to his death.

On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announced in a press conference that five people, including two doctors and Perry's personal assistant, had been charged in connection with his death.