Matthew Perry’s former girlfriend and assistant, Kayti Edwards, has urged police to re-examine the actor’s death due to concerns about ‘rogue’ medical staff.
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, Kayti expressed her worries stemming from the Friends star’s history of employing ‘dodgy’ medical personnel who supplied him with drugs. Matthew, who played Chandler Bing on the hit show, passed away in October 2023, with an autopsy attributing his death to the “acute effects” of ketamine. However, Kayti is convinced that something isn’t right and has called for the case to be reopened.
She said: “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,” In another exclusive chat just before the Academy Awards on Sunday night, Kayti also made a heartfelt plea for Matthew to be remembered at the Oscars, either in the prestigious In Memoriam segment or with a posthumous honour.
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The troubled actor sadly passed away at the age of 54 in October. He had been having ketamine infusion therapy to help with his depression, but his last session was a week and a half before he died, reports the Mirror. The drug only stays in your system for three to four hours but the LAPD has recently closed their investigation.
Kayti, 47, who used to date the late actor in 2006 and stayed friends with him until he passed away, said: “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. He had a way of making people do things for him, saying ‘I’ll give you this amount of money if you keep quiet and get me this.'”.
This comes after recent claims in the US that Matthew was aggressive towards another ex-girlfriend and a former assistant while he was high on drugs – accusations that all involved have so far not commented on. Kayti says she was also asked to help get his drugs when they were dating in 2006, and later when she worked as his assistant in 2011.
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“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. “That’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, who worked as Matthew’s assistant during his toughest times with drugs, saw how bad it got. “Matthew wasn’t a casual partier and when he was in his addiction, it was very scary,” she shared. “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.”
She used to date Matthew after they met through her grandad, Blake Edwards, who made the Pink Panther films. Kayti is also the granddaughter of Julie Andrews. Even after they split, they stayed friends, and Matthew got on well with Kayti’s new husband Walter, who had also battled addiction.
(Image: Warner Brothers)
“Matthew kind of gravitated to him a bit as my husband was sober and in a programme,” Kayti recalls. “I think Matthew felt safe with us a little bit, and that we didn’t judge him.” When he wasn’t acting, Matthew loved being at home away from all the fame.
“It wasn’t like I was hanging out with Matthew Perry, the actor, he was just average. He liked to stay home and watch movies. He likes to put on his Alexa and listen to music and cook,” she says. “And you know, he wanted to be at home a lot because he just wanted to be himself and not have to worry about going out which was a chore for him.”
Kayti pleaded with the Oscars bosses not to ignore the star like the BAFTAs did last month, which upset many fans. Despite starring in 15 hit films, Matthew was overlooked at the Film BAFTAs last month. However, BAFTA chiefs later promised to recognise him in their upcoming TV awards. “I know that it would mean a lot for him to be honoured at the Oscars in some way,” she shared.
“I remember chatting with him about how he always dreamed of being recognised for more than just Friends. He knew that Friends won loads of awards …but personally, I don’t think he got one.”
(Image: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
The Oscars’ five-minute-long In Memoriam section, which features a live singer, is kept secret until Sunday night. His film roles 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.”
Matthew earned his fame as the funny character Chandler Bing in the popular series, earning a whopping $1million (£780,000) for each episode until 2004. But off-camera, the actor was battling addiction and disclosed in his recent memoir that he spent a huge $9 million (£7.1m) to get clean, including up to 15 rehab visits.
Despite his international stardom from the show, Kayti often worried that he lacked true friends who genuinely had his welfare at heart. “It just makes me feel really sad that most of the people in his life wanted something from him…he never really had a solid, good group of friends that really just cared about him and not who he was,” she expresses.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
