Solène Delinger 5:15 p.m., October 24, 2022

On the occasion of the release of his memoir entitled "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terribe Thing", Matthew Perry gave an interview to journalist Diane Sawyer for ABC News.

During this interview, the "Friends" star, who battled his addictions for a long time, opened up about how his on-screen partner Jennifer Aniston helped him overcome his alcoholism. 

"She is the one who has reached out to me the most."

In an interview with ABC News and which will be broadcast on October 28, Matthew Perry paid tribute to Jennifer Aniston, his on-screen partner in the cult series

 Friends.

 Rachel's interpreter indeed supported him as he fought against his addictions to alcohol and drugs. 

“Being confronted with Jennifer Aniston was devastating”

It was at the beginning of his adventure in 

Friends 

that Matthew Perry alias Chandler sank into alcoholism.

If he was trying to hide his addiction on film sets, the actor was quickly confronted by Jennifer Aniston.

"I know you drink," she told him.

A remark that Matthew Perry experienced as a real explosion, he who had then, a few years earlier, had feelings for the actress. “I had forgotten her. I had no more feelings for her since she had started dating Brad Pitt. I was fine. And I had worked out, I was in good shape, but still! Being confronted with Jennifer Aniston was devastating", he says in his memoir .  

“I had tried to hide my alcoholism”

"I didn't know how she had known. I had tried to hide my alcoholism. But she said to me: 'We can smell it'. It was said in a strange but affectionate way. Especially this plural, this 'we', hit me like a hammer. I replied: 'I know I drink too much… but I don't know exactly what to do to stop it'", continues the actor who feels today deeply "grateful" to Jennifer Aniston.

And, the other cast members of 

Friends 

didn't let him down either.

Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Courteney Cox were "very understanding and very patient" people with him.

"It's like penguins," says Matthew Perry.

"In the wild, when one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround him and support him and walk until that penguin can walk on his own. And that's kind of what the cast did for me “, he remembers with emotion in his interview for ABC News. 

“I had a 2% chance of survival”

Matthew Perry almost lost his life due to his addictions.

The actor suffered an intestinal perforation and was in a coma for two weeks.

He also spent five months in hospital after his colon burst due to his use of opiates.

"Doctors said I had a 2% chance of survival," he recalls.

"I was put on a machine called ECMO, which provides breathing instead of the heart and lungs. Five people were put on an ECMO machine that night, the other four died and I survived. So the big question is why. Why was I the only one?". 

Now cured, Matthew Perry considers himself lucky “to be alive”.