Matthew Perry was NEVER clean and lied about his sobriety, star’s tragic boyfriend claims, after autopsy reveals actor died of ketamine overdose

Friends star Matthew Perry, who died last month at the age of 54 after a ketamine overdose, was ‘never’ clean.

The star said in his best-selling 2022 memoir that he finally overcame his addictions with the help of a sober coach and best friend.

However, a close friend of the star, who asked not to be named, said: ‘He lied to everyone about his cleanliness. He never was. It’s very sad. You know, the biggest lie he told was probably to himself.”

The source added, “He could be quite a manipulative person when it came to his struggles with using, but it was such a struggle, such a battle, and he fought every day until the end.”

An autopsy published on Friday revealed that the star died from the ‘acute effects of ketamine’ and by drowning, with Perry having similar amounts of ketamine in his system as a hospital patient under general anaesthetic.

“The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner has determined the cause of death of 54-year-old actor Matthew Langford Perry to be the acute effects of ketamine,” the Los Angeles coroner’s office said Friday.

‘Factors contributing to Mr. Perry’s death include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death is accidental.”

Perry was found face down in the jacuzzi adjacent to the pool at his Los Angeles home on October 28 at 4:17 p.m.

The medical examiner reported that he had received ketamine infusion therapy as a treatment for depression, but the last session was a week and a half before he died, and the ketamine is only in your system for three to four hours, meaning it did not directly lead to his dead.

“At the high concentrations of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood samples, the main lethal effects would be due to both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” concluded the medical examiner, Raffi Djabourian.

A year before his death, he released a tell-all memoir with shocking details about his drug and alcohol addiction.

But he said in October 2022 that he had been sober for 18 months, although that was a year before his death.

Entertainment reporter Athenna Crosby had lunch with him the day before he died and said he was so committed to his sobriety that he refused to hold the wine list.

Perry wrote that he spent $9 million to get sober, attended 6,000 AA meetings, went to rehab 15 times and was in detox 65 times.

At his lowest point, he was taking 55 Vicodin a day to fuel his addiction.

Perry said he overcame his addiction in 2021 and lived a healthier lifestyle.

He started playing pickle ball — a game similar to tennis and table tennis — and usually played it twice a day, friends said.

Perry wrote in his memoir that he was helped during his drug addiction and recovery by a female personal assistant whom he considered his rock and “best friend.”

Morgan Moses, mentioned in the book only by the pseudonym “Erin,” first met Perry when he was admitted to a rehab facility where she worked.

The pair went on to form a friendship that would last almost a decade, becoming the closest and most loving – though always platonic – relationship of his life.

Moses, 37, was a “down-to-earth companion” who described the troubled Friends star as “the nicest person in the world.”

On her LinkedIn page, Moses says she has been working ‘full-time’ as a ‘sober partner’ since 2018.

Her skills include ‘therapeutic crisis intervention’, ‘mental health first aid’, ‘behavioral intervention’ and ‘nutrition advice’.

Originally a website designer, she graduated from Full Sail University in Florida, while her social media suggests she has also had her own addiction struggles and sobriety journey.

When investigators went to Perry’s home, they found no illegal drugs, but did find prescription medications that were properly labeled and kept in storage bottles.

However, the medical examiner did find evidence of his years of drug and alcohol abuse, with Perry suffering from ‘chronic liver congestion’ – a precursor to liver cirrhosis – although it had not yet progressed to cirrhosis.

He also had nephrosclerosis of the kidneys – a hardening of the tissues caused by long-term, poorly controlled high blood pressure and long-term drug use.

Perry’s autopsy also found chronic pancreatic fibrosis; Opioids are suspected of causing damage to the pancreas.

His heart and lungs were also significantly damaged.

Perry weighed 216 pounds and was mildly obese.

In the memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote that after his colon exploded in 2018, he was prescribed opiates that he deemed insufficient to deal with his pain.

This led him to turn to street dealers to supply him with potentially fatal, possibly fentanyl-laced OxyContin.

“The street pills cost about $75 a pill, so I gave the guy $3,000 a pop, many times a week,” he wrote.

Perry was laid to rest in an intimate ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, attended by his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox and David Schwimmer.