TMZ Investigates‘ latest episode on Fox, airing Monday (September 16), focuses on the latest developments in the drowning death of Friends icon Matthew Perry, from shedding light on the unscrupulous practices of some Hollywood doctors and the so-called “Ketamine Queen” who has been arrested in the case to the impact the actor’s very public experience with addiction had on others around him.
The episode features testimonials from several well-known celebrities who are also now in recovery, including Kelly Osbourne, who shared her harrowing experiences with drug misuse and a particularly touching anecdote about how Perry himself was one of the people to help her through rehabilitation treatment.
In the episode, Osbourne revealed of Perry, “He helped so many people. He helped me one day. I was 19 years old and I was in rehab for the first time, and I just wanted to run. It wasn’t clicking. I didn’t get it. I’d never felt more insecure or hated myself more. He could see that I was struggling, he walked up to me and he gave me a chip, and it said, ‘Just three minutes. If you can get through three minutes, you can get through anything.’ That chip got me through that day, which then got me through the next day, which then got me through the next day, and I’ll never forget that.”
Osbourne went on to claim that, based on her own experiences, sticking with recovery can be extraordinarily difficult, accusing certain rehab centers of planting drug dealers in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in order to entice addicts to relapse.
“I wish I could say I was surprised by [Perry’s] death,” Osbourne added. “I was shocked because he’s the last kind of person you’d ever want to have this kind of life. When you think about how much pain he must have been in, it’s devastating, but at the same time, he was an addict, and you can’t be shocked when an addict passes away because it’s par for the course. It ends in three places: jails, institutions, or death.”
Also speaking about their personal journeys to recovery in the docuseries episode were Jersey Shore star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and Jackass‘ Brandon Novak. Meanwhile, Botched star Terry Dubrow also participated in the docuseries and revealed why so many doctors’ abuse of prescription privileges go unchecked by fellow physicians: “Doctors are afraid that if we report a physician to the medical board that we could be subject to claims of defamation of character or slander and that we could find ourselves embroiled in a lawsuit,” he explained.
One non-celebrity who had a particularly interesting tidbit to share about Perry was Stillwater Behavioral Health CEO Nick Mathews, who remembered attending AA alongside Perry early on his recovery: “There was always a sense of melancholy. And it’s understandable. It’s difficult to exist like that where everybody knows who you are just in a glance,” he explained. “I would just see him sitting by himself quietly in the back while we’re all in front having meaningful connections with one another but not feeling the same kind of vulnerability… he very very clearly had a circle of enablers. And that’s always going to be true when you’re at that level of celebrity. You have a group of people around you, yes men, enablers, that just get things done for you. And you could see that. I don’t know that Matthew Perry knew how to keep himself safe.”
If you or someone you know has addiction issues, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
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