Matthew Perry was “happy” before his sudden death last October, according to his stepdad, “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.
The 76-year-old Canadian journalist, who married Perry’s mother Suzanne in 1981, opened up to Hoda Kotb’s “Making Space” podcast this week about the beloved “Friends” star’s passing.
“He was happy, and he said so. And he hadn’t said that for a long time,” Morrison shared. “It’s a source of comfort, but also he didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair.”
“It’s not easy, especially for his mom,” Morrison added, saying that in the final days Perry and his mother “were closer than I’ve seen them for decades.”
Morrison noted that he too was “close” with his stepson.
“I never tried to replace his dad [John Bennett Perry],” the TV anchor said. “But I was there for him, and he knew it.”
Perry — who was candid about his lifelong battle with substance abuse but was reportedly sober at the time of his death — died Oct. 28 of the “acute effects of ketamine,” officials ruled two months later. He was 54 years old.
The “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” author had been taking the dissociative anesthetic as part of ketamine infusion therapy, intended to treat depression and anxiety. However, the medical examiner noted the ketamine in his body “could not be from [his last] infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.” Perry’s last-known session had been a week and a half before his death.
There was no evidence of alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl or PCP in Perry’s system, per the medical examiner.
“He felt like he was beating it,” Morrison said of Perry’s battle with addiction. “But you never beat it, and he knew that, too.”
When asked whether Perry’s death surprised him, Morrison said, “Yes and no.”
“It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might,” he said of the “larger-than-life” actor.
A month after Perry’s passing, Morrison commemorated Giving Tuesday by asking his social media followers to donate to the Matthew Perry Foundation — founded to help others battling addiction, a life goal of its namesake.
“This is not the sort of thing I commonly do, this pitch. But this year is different,” Morrison said at the time. “Do what you can; he would have been grateful.”
