Matthew Perry's Mother on the Inevitability of His Death

Matthew Perry has gray hair and a beard and wears a navy shirt to visit SiriusXM Studios on November 01, 2022 — (Image credit: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

Matthew Perry died on October 28, 2023 when he drowned following an accidental ketamine overdose. In a new interview with Today's Savannah Guthrie, Perry's mom Suzanne Morrison discussed the last time she saw her son before his death.

"He went through a period, interestingly enough, just before he died when he was showing me one of his new houses," Suzanne, who is married to Dateline's Keith Morrison, explained. "He came up to me and he said, 'I love you so much, and I'm so happy to be with you now. And I'm so...' It was almost as though it was a premonition or something."

She continued, "I didn’t think about it at the time, but I thought, 'How long has it been since we’ve had a conversation like that?' It's been years."

Latest Videos FromMarie Claire

Watch full video here:

Suzanne also shared that Perry appeared to have made peace with death prior to his passing. "[T]here was an inevitability to what was going to happen next to him, and he felt it very strongly," Suzanne noted. "But he said, 'I'm not frightened anymore.' And it worried me."

Matthew Perry wears a shirt and a black leather jacket while standing in between his sister Emily and mother Suzanne Morrison on October 3, 2001 in Los Angeles — Matthew Perry with sister Emily Morrison and mom Suzanne Morrison in 2001.

Following his death, the world mourned the loss of the iconic Friends actor, whose talent was immortalized in the hit sitcom.

In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office released a statement revealing the "acute effects of ketamine" were the cause of Perry's death, via Today. "Contributing factors in Mr. Perry’s death include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death is accident," the statement explained.

Following an investigation, multiple arrests were made in relation to Perry's death. Five people were charged in August 2024, with U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada revealing (per the BBC), "These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves... They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyway."

"Prosecutors said Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with the two doctors to provide the actor with more than $50,000 of ketamine in the weeks before his death," the BBC reported.

Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.