Months after his shocking death, Matthew Perry’s former girlfriend Lauren Graham opens up about the final birthday gift she received from him.
While promoting her new book Have I Told You This Already? Graham opened up to Deadline about Perry. “It’s still hard to believe,” she said about the Friends star’s death. “While he was not technically ever a boyfriend, he was an almost in my life.”
Lauren Graham also described Matthew Perry as being “a friend and a constant” to her. “We would stretch for a year, then he would come back in my life,” she said. “And he had just come back in my life last year.”
Graham then shared that Perry bought her a pickleball set for her birthday in March 2023. “He’s like really into tennis and pickleball,” she said. “With a card that said, ‘Be older.’”
The Gilmore Girls alum described Perry’s death as being a “terrible loss.” A picture of the duo appeared in Perry’s 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing. “Me and the beautiful Lauren Graham,” Matthew Perry wrote in the photo’s caption.
Graham recalled Perry being proud of his memoir was received.
“The solace I take from having seen him at the time I saw him was he was so thrilled with how his book was received,” she added. “And not just because it was a huge success, but because his life’s work kind of became, ‘How can I give back? how can I talk about the struggles I had and hopefully help someone else?’”
Matthew Perry passed away on October 28. He was 54 years old at the time of his death. He reportedly died from the “acute effects” of ketamine.
Lauren Graham Previously Said It was Such a Joy to Be Matthew Perry’s Friend
Weeks after Matthew Perry’s death was announced, Lauren Graham spoke to CBS Mornings about the friendship she had with the Friends alum.
“I am still in shock,” she said at the time. “I mean, it’s just a really tragic loss, and he leaves his beautiful work behind. And that’s something to be thankful for, and again, the book [Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing] really meant something to him, so it was a really happy year for him.”
Lauren Graham also pointed out that no one made her laugh as hard as Matthew Perry did. “I mean, just tears, streaming. There was just such joy in being around him and being his friend.”