Matthew Perry’s ex-girlfriend and former assistant has urged Oscars bosses to pay a moving tribute to the Friends star.
Kayti Edwards urged executives not to snub the star like the BAFTAs did last month which sparked a massive backlash from fans and she also pleaded with cops to re-open the now-closed investigation into his death because of his history of having “rogue” medical staff on his payroll giving him drugs.
It comes after she witnessed firsthand the Friends actor paying nurses to supply him up to 50 Vicodin pills a day and she believes a similarly dodgy doctor or nurse could be behind the mystery dose of ketamine found in his system which killed him.
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In an exclusive interview 24 hours before Sunday (March 10) night’s Academy Awards ceremony, Kayti spoke out to plead that the said Friends star should be remembered in some way – either during the coveted In Memoriam section or honoured posthumously. It follows recent US allegations that Matthew was aggressive with another ex plus a former assistant while high on drugs – claims all parties have so far refused to comment on.
(Image: Getty Images)
Matthew was meanwhile snubbed at last month’s Film BAFTAs despite being in 15 hit movies, with BAFTA bosses later promising to honour him in their forthcoming TV awards instead. Kayti, 47, who dated the late actor in 2006 but remained friends with him up until his death, says: “I know that it would mean a lot for him to be honoured at the Oscars in some way.
“I remember having a conversation with him about how it was always his dream to be recognised and not just for Friends He was always aware of the sad reality that Friends got tons of awards …but personally, I don’t think he got one.” The Oscars’ five-minute-long In Memoriam section, which is accompanied by a live singer, is a closely guarded secret until Sunday night.
(Image: InTouch Weekly/Youtube)
His film credits included 17 Again with Zac Efron, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards with Bruce Willis; Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek and A Night In the Life of Jimmy Reardon with the late River Phoenix.
“I am not surprised at all by the backlash [to the BAFTA snub] …he was so very well loved,” Kayti says. “Although it’s interesting as he had a love-hate relationship with his film career. He was always cast in a funny role or as the love interest but instead he always wanted roles that had more depth, and that were more meaningful.”
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Matthew made his name as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the hit series, which saw him earn $1million (£780,000) per episode, and ran until 2004 but behind the scenes the actor was struggling with addiction and revealed recently in his memoir how he spent $9 million (£7.1m) trying to get sober including 15 trips to rehab.
The troubled actor eventually died aged 54 in October with an autopsy finding he succumbed to the “acute effects” of ketamine. He had been receiving ketamine infusion therapy as 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.
(Image: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
It means he had been sourcing his ketamine elsewhere but the LAPD recently closed the investigation. It needs to be looked at again. I know when Matthew was taking 40 to 50 Vicodin in a day, he was getting it from a nurse who would bring it to his house,” says Kayti.
“He had a way of enabling people to do things for him, saying ‘I’ll give you this amount of money if you keep your mouth shut and get me this.” Kayti says she herself was roped into securing his drugs when she dated him in 2006, and later worked as his assistant, in 2011.
“He made it so hard to say no. He was like ‘Kayti, can you run down and pick up this envelope for me, I’ll give you $5,000.’ It was hard to say no to that. It’s why I want people to investigate medical staff to see if he had a deal with any of them to give him some ketamine on the side.” Kayti worked as Matthew’s assistant at the height of his drug addiction and saw the fall-out firsthand.
(Image: Getty Images)
“Matthew wasn’t a casual partier and when he was in his addiction, it was very scary,” she says. “He was just like a vacuum cleaner of anything you could get his hands on which is very dangerous. But with a person in active addiction, you can’t really tell them to stop or make them stop. You know, you can just kind of be there for them.”
Kayti — granddaughter of British film icon Julie Andrews — had previously dated him for several months after meeting through her grandfather Blake Edwards, the Hollywood director of the original Pink Panther movies and when they broke up, they remained friends, with Matthew even becoming pals with Kayti’s new husband Walter, who was in recovery.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
