Prad Nungel
In his biography Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry was open about his brief relationship with Julia Roberts. He believed he would “never be enough” and admitted that he broke up with her in the 1990s.
Matthew Perry is talking extensively about his brief relationship with Julia Roberts. In his eagerly anticipated memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, the Friends actor not only described how he persuaded the Oscar winner to make a cameo appearance on the venerable sitcom, but he also revealed the real reason he broke up with Roberts after only two months of dating.
Reasons Behind the Break-up
The 53-year-old actor was candid about how his own mental instability caused their relationship to end after just two months in his new memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
The “Friends” actor states that he and the 54-year-old actress had started dating by the time Roberts made a surprise appearance on an episode of the well-known comedy. However, things swiftly went south.
According to a passage from Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing obtained by The Times and Entertainment Weekly, Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts parted ways for the following reasons:
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unloveable.”
“So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts. She might have considered herself slumming it with a TV guy, and the TV guy was now breaking up with her. I can’t begin to describe the look of confusion on her face.” said Perry and that he believed the “Pretty Woman” star was “slumming it” by dating him in an excerpt that was published by the Times UK.
Relationship leading to Cameo in Friends
The brief affair developed as a result of Roberts’ declaration that she would “only do the show” if she could participate in Perry’s character’s plot. Roberts later wed Danny Moder.
Also, he disclosed Julia Roberts’ guest appearance in Friends Season 2. Episode 13 titled The One After the Superbowl, Part 2 was secured by Matthew Perry.
Perry reiterated Julia’s demand and joked, “Was I having a good year or what?” but also added, “But first, I had to woo her.”
In an effort to win Julia Roberts over, Matthew Perry who portrayed Chandler Bing on the popular program sent her over three dozen roses. Along with a paper on quantum physics drawing inspiration from Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman:
“The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers.”
Julia was not easy to convince! “Her reply was that if I adequately explained quantum physics to her, she’d agree to be on the show”
“The following day, I sent her a paper all about wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle and entanglement, and only some of it was metaphorical,” Matthew Perry recalled before adding, “Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a gift: bagels — lots and lots of bagels. … I did let her in, both figuratively and literally, and a relationship began.”
On the other side, Alexa Junge, a staff writer for Friends, recalled the notes with affection: “There was a lot of flirting over faxing. She was giving him these questionnaires. Like, ‘Why should I go out with you?’ And everyone in the writers’ room helped him explain to her why. He could do pretty well without us, but there was no question we were on Team Matthew and trying to make it happen for him.”
Dru Addiction
While appearing on one of the most-watched TV shows and dating the crème de la crème of Hollywood, Perry was nevertheless also battling drug and alcohol addiction.
The actor, who played the title role in the comedy from 1994 to 2004, had to enter rehab twice during the show’s ten-year run.
Including after filming the iconic moment in which his character wed Monica Geller, a character played by Courteney Cox.
Perry spoke with the New York Times on Sunday following the Season 7 finale shoot;
he was “driven back to the treatment center… in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician.”
“[I was] at the height of my highest point in ‘Friends,’ the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show,” he continued, saying that his “exhausting” opiate addiction made it impossible for him to enjoy his role on the NBC sitcom.
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Both his financial condition and his career were negatively impacted by his addiction. He told the publication about his long battle, which started when he was just 14 years old:
“I’ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to be sober.”
The actor was using “55 Vicodin a day,” along with “Methadone, Xanax,”. At the height of his addiction, he also consumed “a full quart of vodka.”
Also, Actor “nearly died” a few years ago when his colon burst. He was given a “2%” chance of survival by doctors because of his heavy drug use.
The actor’s near-death experience has kept him clean for the last 18 months. Also due to the necessity to wear a colostomy bag for nine months.
He told People magazine on Thursday, “The next time you think about taking OxyContin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life.” I slid through a small window that then opened, saying, “I no longer want OxyContin.”
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Julia Roberts’ character in FRIENDS
Julia Roberts appeared on Friends in The One After the Superbowl, Part 2 of Season 2 Episode 13.
Roberts played Susie Moss, Chandler Bing’s (Matthew Perry) elementary school classmate, in the funny episode. The stunning couple ignites a passionate affair after reuniting decades later.
But on their date night, Moss steals all of Chandler’s clothes! Including his underwear—as retaliation for embarrassing her in fourth grade, revealing Susie’s true motivations.
