'I'm glad he's out of pain' - Jennifer Aniston says she was 'mourning' Matthew Perry before his death

Friends fans, this one might be a tough read. Jennifer Aniston has shared new insight into how she and the cast of the hit series have coped with the tragic death of Matthew Perry.

Matthew, who won millions of fans around the world for his portrayal of the sarcastic Chandler Bing in the beloved sitcom between 1994 and 2004, died in October 2023, aged 54. Autopsy reports identified the cause as "the acute effects" of ketamine, with drowning a contributing factor.

Now, nearly two years on, Matthew’s long-time co-star and friend, Jennifer Aniston, has opened up to Vanity Fair, suggesting as "hard as it is", it might be for the "better".

In her candid, revealing interview, the Emmy-winning actress shared that she and her Friends castmates, which include Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow, had done "everything we could when we could."

"But it almost felt like we’d been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight."

Jennifer added, "As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there’s a part of me that thinks this is better. I’m glad he’s out of that pain."

Echoing Jennifer’s sentiment in his own 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew wrote frankly about his addiction, sharing, "Addiction has ruined so much of my life it’s not funny. It’s ruined relationships. It’s ruined the day-to-day process of being me."

Of their relationship, Matthew had previously singled out Jennifer for continuing to check up on him through his sobriety journey and struggles.

"She was the one that reached out the most. You know, I'm really grateful to her for that," he said of The Morning Show star in an October 2022 interview with Diane Sawyer.

She was also the one who confronted him directly about his addiction struggles during the filming of the show. "Jennifer, she says, 'We know you're drinking'", Diane asked him in the interview.

"Yeah, imagine how scary a moment that was," he responded.

It wasn’t just Jennifer’s grief for her co-star that she got confessional and candid about in the new interview. She briefly touched on the "love triangle" that made headlines around the world back in 2005, when her husband at the time, Brad Pitt, left her for his Mr & Mrs Smith co-star Angelina Jolie.

Revealing how she kept going during the whole furore, Jennifer nonchalantly shared, "Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl. It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn’t have their soap operas, they had their tabloids."

Jennifer can next be seen on screens returning for season four of Apple TV’s The Morning Show on September 17. She plays the tough and ambitious Alex Levy, for which she won the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Award.