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\u201cFriends\u201d star Matthew Perry continues to share candid moments from his long journey to sobriety and the struggles he endured during his run on the long-running NBC sitcom even as he was yo-yoing between addictions to Vicodin and alcohol, reports CNN.<\/p>\n
In an excerpt from his much-anticipated new book, \u201cFriends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing\u201d, the American-Canadian actor recounts how a visit from co-star Jennifer Aniston to his trailer made him realise his secret behaviour, when it came to alcohol, wasn\u2019t so secret. \u201cI know you\u2019re drinking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Perry, now 53, writes in the memoir, in an excerpt published by \u201cThe Times\u201d of London: \u201cI had long since gotten over her \u2013 ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine \u2013 and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating. And I was confused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing his account of the visit by Aniston, Perry recalls asking her: \u201cHow can you tell? \u2026 I\u2019ve been trying to hide it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the excerpt, according to CNN, Perry mentioned how he \u201cnever\u201d worked high or drunk (although he \u201ccertainly worked hungover\u201d). <\/p>\n
He said he was largely able to function as part of the uber-successful \u201cFriends\u201d ensemble thanks to his cast mates and how they would \u201cgroup around (him) and prop (him) up\u201d like an injured penguin being supported by the other penguins.<\/p>\n
But that day in Perry\u2019s trailer, Aniston told him plainly that he wasn\u2019t getting away with anything.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018We can smell it,\u2019 she said, \u201cin a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural \u2018we\u2019 hit me like a sledgehammer,\u201d Perry writes. \u201c\u2018I know I\u2019m drinking too much,\u2019 I said,\u201d recalls Perry, \u201c\u2018but I don\u2019t exactly know what to do about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of season three, I was spending most of my time figuring out how to get 55 Vicodin a day \u2013 I had to have 55 every day, otherwise I\u2019d get so sick. It was a full-time job: making calls, seeing doctors, faking migraines, finding crooked nurses who would give me what I needed,\u201d Perry writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing\u201d by Matthew Perry will be published by Headline on November 1.<\/p>\n
Read the latest issue of IOL Health digital magazine here.<\/p>\n