Keith Morrison is opening up about his relationship with his stepson Matthew Perry.
The Dateline host was a guest on the March 13 episode of Hoda Kotb’s Making Space podcast. During their conversation, Morrison spoke about the Friends star, who died in October 2023 from the acute effects of ketamine.
“It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might,” Morrison said when asked if he was surprised by Perry’s death. The actor had been open about his drug addiction and multiple trips to rehab, including in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
Keith Morrison married Matthew Perry’s mother Suzanne in 1981
Morrison married Perry’s mother, Suzanne Langford, in 1981. At the time, the future sitcom star was 12 years old. But he was already a big personality, Morrison said.
The NBC reporter recalled ferrying his stepson to sporting events when he was young. If a hockey game or tennis match didn’t play out as he hoped, Perry could get angry, even smashing his tennis racket when he missed shots.
“And so he had that kind of very fiery personality,” Morrison said. “And mine is not like that, as you can imagine. But we got along fine. I never tried to replace his dad, but I was there for him, and he knew it. We were close.”
The ‘Friends’ star was ‘always the center of attention’
Morrison remembered his stepson as someone who was “loud and out there and funny and aggressive.” Wherever he was, he drew the spotlight.
“He was a larger-than-life person … He was always the center of attention everywhere he went,” Morrison said. “That kind of personality. He was goofy. He was funny. He was acerbic. But even if he didn’t say a word, he was the center of attention. And so yes, that’s gone, but you still feel the echo of it everywhere around here.”
Morrison watched as Perry fought addiction while also starring in one of the most popular TV shows of all time.
“It’s a whirlwind of a life to get involved in a program that became as wildly successful as it was to be fighting an addiction that was so virulent, that went after him so hard,” Morrison shared. “And he gave into it frequently.”
Despite the many challenges in his personal life, Perry seemed to have turned a corner before his sudden death at age 54.
“He was happy, and he said so,” Morrison said of Perry’s mindset before his death. “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.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
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