Matthew Perry reveals hospitalization
Matthew Perry of the TV show "The Kennedys - After Camelot" speaks onstage during the REELZ Channel portion of the 2017 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour. Credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown
Actor Matthew Perry, who rose to fame playing Chandler Bing in the sitcom "Friends" despite self-admitted drug and alcohol abuse, tweeted on Friday that he has spent the last quarter-year hospitalized.
"Three months in a hospital bed. Check," wrote the 49-year-old in his first tweet since March 23 and only his second since Dec. 30.Perry, who has garnered four Emmy nominations for both comedy and drama, did not indicate if he remained hospitalized or if he has been released. He has no Instagram account and has not posted on his Facebook page since 2015.
On Aug. 7, Perry's representative had said in a statement that the actor "recently underwent surgery in a Los Angeles hospital to repair a gastrointestinal perforation." According to medical sources, gastrointestinal perforation, or GP, is a hole through the stomach, large bowel or small intestine that can be the result of diseases including appendicitis, diverticulitis, or Crohn's disease, such conditions as a stomach ulcer or gallbladder infection, or such trauma as a knife or gunshot wound.
Perry has been candid about his addictions, telling People magazine in 2013, "I had a big problem with alcohol and pills and I couldn't stop," adding, "Eventually things got so bad that I couldn't hide it, and then everybody knew." In January 2016, he responded to a question on a British radio show about his least favorite episode of the 1994-2004 hit "Friends" by saying, "I think the answer is I don't remember three years of it," specifying "somewhere between season three and six."
After developing an addiction to the painkiller Vicodin, Perry in 1997 completed a 28-day stay at the Hazelden Foundation rehab center in Minnesota. "That was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me," he later said. "You get a whole new respect for yourself and life when you go through something that difficult." In 2001, his publicist announced without detail that Perry had "entered an undisclosed rehabilitation hospital." The actor would go on to have several such stints in inpatient rehab.
He has continued acting, starring as Oscar Madison in CBS' 2015-2017 revival of "The Odd Couple," and last year had a recurring role on the CBS All Access drama "The Good Fight" and played Ted Kennedy in a Reelz miniseries.
