Keith Morrison spoke out about how the weight of stepson Matthew Perry’s death is with him “all the time.”
“It’s as other people have told me hundreds of times; it doesn’t go away yet,” Morrison told Hoda Kotb in Wednesday’s episode of her “Making Space” podcast.
“It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time, and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and it’s not easy.”
The “Friends” star was found dead in his jacuzzi on Oct. 28, 2023, at age 54. The coroner later announced that Perry had died from the acute effects of ketamine.
The “Dateline” correspondent arrived at the scene later that night with his wife and Perry’s mother, Suzanne Langford Perry, whom Morrison admitted was not having an “easy” time.
“I don’t think I’m giving away too much if I say that toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades,” he explained on the podcast, “and texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”
Morrison, 76, echoed Jennifer Aniston’s comments that the “Fools Rush In” actor was the happiest he had ever been before his untimely death.
“He was happy, and he said so,” he continued. “And he hadn’t said that for a long time. It’s a source of comfort, but also, he didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair.
“And as he said himself, ‘If if I suddenly died, people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised.’ And he was right.”
The “Today” show co-anchor asked Morrison whether he was caught off guard by Perry’s death.
“It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might,” he said. “So yes, and no, I guess is the answer to that.”
Morrison said he supported the “Whole Nine Yards” star “as much as possible” as he grappled with the career high of “Friends” to his lowest points battling substance abuse that prompted multiple trips to rehab.
“He came to understand he’d get to a certain point, and then he knew he had to go and get treatment, and he’d accept help when he needed it,” Morrison explained. “But as he said himself, it just kept happening, and it was it was a big bear. It was a tough thing to be — big, terrible thing.”
The crime show personality and Suzanne started the Matthew Perry Foundation following the actor’s death to help people struggling with addiction.
“You’re always beating it back. The disease is built in, and I really don’t think it ever goes away,” he said. “It’s in your brain, and the brain doesn’t want to let it go.”
