Matthew Perry has revealed he broke up with Julia Roberts in the 90s because he felt he would “never be enough” for her.
The 53-year-old actor candidly opened up about how his own mental health issues led to the end of their relationship after just two months in his new memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
The ‘Friends’ star says he and the 54-year-old actress had started dating the moment Roberts appeared on an episode of the hit sitcom – but things quickly took a turn for the worse.
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had always been certain that she was going to break up with me,” Perry wrote in an excerpt published by The Times UK, adding that he felt the “Pretty Woman” star was “falling apart” dating him.
“Why wouldn’t she? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”
The ‘Whole Nine Yards’ actor says he can’t “begin to describe the expression of confusion on her face” after breaking up.
The whirlwind romance blossomed after Roberts, who married Danny Moder, claimed she would only “do the show” if she were to be part of Perry’s character story.
Afterward, Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit show, attempted to “woo” the Oscar-winning actress by sending her dozens of roses and sweet messages, including an article about quantum physics.
“Not only did Julia agree to do the show, but she also sent me a present: bagels – lots and lots of bagels. … I let her in, both figuratively and literally, and a relationship started.
However, while Perry starred on one of TV’s biggest shows and dated Hollywood’s best, he also struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.
The actor, who starred on the sitcom from 1994 to 2004, had to go to rehab twice in the show’s 10-year run, including after filming the iconic moment his character married Monica Geller, played by Courteney Cox.
Perry told The New York Times on Sunday that he filmed the Season 7 finale and was then “taken back to the treatment center…in a van steered by a sober technician.”
“[I was] at the height of my high point in ‘Friends’, the high point of my career, the iconic moment of the iconic show,” he said, adding that his “exhausting” opioid addiction had ruined his ability to agree to be on the NBC sitcom.
Not only has his addiction had a major impact on his career, but also on his bank account.
“I probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober,” he told the outlet of his decades-long struggle that began at just 14 years old.
At the height of his addiction, the actor took “55 Vicodin a day”, in addition to “Methadone, Xanax” and “a liter of vodka”.
Due to heavy drug use, the actor “nearly died” a few years ago when his colon burst and doctors told him he had a “2%” chance of survival.
Between the near-death experience and having to wear a colostomy bag for nine months, the actor finally got sober — and has been for 18 months.
“My therapist said, ‘Next time you think about taking OxyContin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,'” he told People magazine on Thursday. “And a little window opened, and I crawled through, and I don’t want any more OxyContin.”
Perry’s memoir was released on November 1.
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