Matthew's stepfather, "Dateline's" Keith Morrison, his mom, Suzanne Morrison, along with 3 of his sisters, sat down with "Today's" Savannah Guthrie to reveal what they believe were critical factors in Matthew's death.
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00:00It has been one year to the day that Matthew Perry tragically died in his hot tub at his
00:10home in Los Angeles.
00:12And his family has spoken a little bit about it, but now they have come together a year
00:19later to talk about Matthew, to talk about their impressions of what he was going through,
00:26and the consequences that they feel that some of the people involved in this should
00:32be responsible for.
00:33Right, and that I think they hope that drug dealers in general are getting a warning after
00:39what happened to Matthew and the suspects that have been brought to justice already
00:43and others that are in the process.
00:45But what's really interesting here is what his family, his mother, three of his sisters,
00:51his stepfather Keith Morrison also, all sitting down to talk about what Matthew was going
00:58through and what their impression of Matthew was in the months leading up to his death.
01:04This is really interesting to hear from all of them.
01:07When he passed, did you think he's sober, he's still on his path?
01:12It appeared to us as if he was.
01:14Not to you.
01:15It certainly seemed like it to me.
01:17Although, you know, he was a guy who would make decisions.
01:21I can handle this, I can do this, I can tell you what's right, I know the whole system
01:25inside and out, I know what the drug will do to me.
01:28And so there was that worry that, hmm, let's see, what's he really doing?
01:32I don't even know if in his mind he had relapsed.
01:37That's interesting.
01:38I don't think he did.
01:39He didn't.
01:40What do you think about the fact that there has been some accountability there?
01:43I'm thrilled.
01:44I'm thrilled.
01:45What I'm hoping, and I think the agencies that got involved in this are hoping, that
01:50people who have put themselves in the business of supplying people with the drugs that'll
01:56kill them, that they are now on notice.
01:58It doesn't matter what your professional credentials are, you're going down, baby.
02:03That's a clear reference to the doctors who were involved.
02:06Well, the doctor, the ketamine queen.
02:08Right, but meaning that just because you're a doctor and you think that in your profession
02:13no one's going to be looking at that, the point is that, yeah, even doctors now, I love
02:20Keith Morrison, and I've known him over the years.
02:22I worked with him at KNBC a long time ago.
02:26I wish he were right on this.
02:28And certainly it looks like there's going to be accountability with Matthew Perry.
02:32But you know this as well as I, that if it's a celebrity case, Mac Miller, Liam Payne,
02:38Matthew Perry, they do look.
02:40Yes, those high profile cases, they're looking into it.
02:42The question is, how much impact is that having overall for regular drug abuse?
02:48Of which there are many.
02:52The other thing that is really striking to me about this interview was one of his sisters
02:58saying, I don't even know if he knew he had fallen off the wagon.
03:03That is a really important, stunning point.
03:06And when she makes that point, I thought it was interesting because I'm thinking, if you
03:10are an addict and you know that you're buying these big doses of the ketamine drug and you're
03:16having your assistant show up to your house and the assistant's injecting you, to me that
03:22point didn't totally make sense.
03:23He knew exactly what he was doing.
03:25He was spending a ton of money to have people close to him go out, buy the drug, and then
03:31put it in his body.
03:32So to me, I don't know.
03:34Yeah, I know you're saying, Brendan, but I think combined with what Keith Morrison said,
03:38which was that he was a guy who felt like he was in control and that he understood the
03:43impact of, you know, he's going to take the drug however much and knew, thought he knew
03:48exactly what his reaction would be, that he had enough experience that he was kind of
03:55in control is the word he used.
03:56And the other thing is, if you read his book, he talks about, you know, how dark it got,
04:02you know, where when he is one of the most famous people in the world, he spent all of
04:06his time in a dark room with drug dealers.
04:09So compared to that, when you look at his life then, yes, he was taking a lot of ketamine,
04:15but he was also playing pickleball.
04:17He wasn't holed up.
04:20And so maybe he felt like, relatively speaking to what he had been through, it's sort of
04:27like an alcoholic who says, OK, I can have a drink.
04:30And then it turns into two drinks and they say, it's not like the nine drinks I used
04:34to drink.
04:35And then when they get to six or seven, they realize where they are.
04:38I think it's kind of the same thing, same thing here.
04:41But I don't know.
04:44I mean, I got to tell you, we did a documentary on this about it's called Matthew Perry and
04:50the Secret Celebrity Drug Ring, where we talk about, you know, how extensive this network
04:57is where you can get drugs.
04:59That's Kelly Osbourne.
05:01Talking about how she got Oxy when she was 13 years old from a doctor filled by a pharmacy
05:07with no parents even there.
05:09It's crazy to think that this has been a year and, you know, hearing now for the first time
05:13really from his family in this interview.
05:15But today we're also hearing from Jennifer Aniston.
05:17She is his first friend and cast member to speak out.
05:22She just put up a couple of photos of them together through the years, captioned it simply
05:27one year anniversary.
05:28So I'm sure we'll hear more as the day goes on from him.
05:31And she was the one who really I mean, they were all very supportive of him during the
05:36run of the show.
05:37But she was she knew what was going on and was really trying to do something.
05:43I'm Candace Cooper and I am live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
05:47For me, I grew up watching the show live.
05:50I know.
05:51I know I look young, but I grew up watching Matthew Perry.
05:54I think we all took for granted that we were going to see this man on our screens for a
05:58long, long time.
06:00And that's just not the case.
06:02And that's really heartbreaking because he was a wonderful actor.
06:05So RIP to Matthew Perry.