A longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous and close friend of the late television star confirmed Perry was off booze and appeared to be ‘doing well’ before he was found dead at his Pacific Palisades home on Saturday.
The 54-year-old Friends alum, who had spoken candidly about his road to recovery and numerous relapses throughout the years, raised fears that he might have fallen off the wagon again after he was believed to have drowned in his hot tub.
But a fellow member of his recovery program told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: ‘Matty wasn’t drinking. He was a big part of our AA community. He was attending meetings, speaking at meetings and was working with a handful of newcomers.
‘He had a sponsor and was a sponsor. He seemed to be doing well.’
The insider said the actor had been focused on helping others battling addiction and had recently expressed interest in sharing his story through public speaking events.
‘Matty said he wanted to return to universities and speak about alcoholism. That was his gift. He could speak so well and motivate people,’ the source added.
‘It was important for him to reach the younger generation and spread his Don’t Give Up message. He really lived by those words.
‘He always made people laugh, even in meetings. But he was also spiritual, not religious, but spiritual. He walked the talk and knew this was his mission. To help other people, to give them hope.
‘Matty will forever be the definition of hope because he never, ever gave up. He turned his life around and helped countless people in the program. More than he could imagine.’
Initial reports of the TV icon’s death said Perry was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi but no drugs were discovered at the scene and there was no indication of foul play.
He is believed to have drowned, although an official cause of death has not yet been determined and an initial autopsy result has been ‘deferred’, with toxicology reports set to follow.
In the months leading up to his death, Perry had made numerous public appearances during which he spoke about overcoming addiction, a major theme in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
In his last interview promoting his book in November 2022 he insisted that, contrary to popular belief, ‘people can change’ if they are willing to put in the work.
He said: ‘I want people to understand that they’re not alone that there are other people feeling exactly the way they’re feeling.
‘That their behavior is not insane, that they have a disease and it’s not their fault. There’s a very famous line that people don’t change. I happen to know that people do change.
‘And I see that every day. I see people getting better. I see the lights in their eyes come on and they get through the terrible part of addiction and the detox and are able to live a normal life as long as they do a certain amount of work everyday.’
Dozens of celebrities and former co-stars have paid tribute to the beloved actor in the wake of his passing, including friend and comedian Hank Azaria – who credited Perry with helping him get sober.
In an emotional Instagram video on Sunday, Azaria recalled how Perry was ‘the first friend I made in Los Angeles.’
‘When I moved there, I was 21, he was 16. We did a pilot together called Morning Maggie that never saw the light of day, but Matthew and I became really good friends’ Azaria added.
‘He’s lived to laugh and every night he was… he was like a genius. He would start to weave comedy threads together, just hanging out,’ Azaria added.
‘A joke here, a joke there, a joke here, a joke there, and then by the end of the night, he’d weave them all together in this like crescendo of hilarity,’ Azaria explained.
He added that, ‘most nights you spent with Matthew you were crying laughing by the end. I really loved him. A lot of us close to him really thought we lost him to drugs and alcohol a long time ago.’
‘As he documented in his book, in his autobiography, there was so much suffering. I had to pick up and put down that biography like 11 times, it was so painful for me to read,’ Azaria continued.
‘It was really… as his friend who loved him, I knew he must be suffering, but the details of it were just devastating.’
The Simpsons actor revealed that he himself has been sober for 17 years, and that, ‘the night I went into AA, Matthew brought me in.’
‘The whole first year I was sober, we both went to meetings together, and he was such a great… I got to tell him this, as a sober person, he was so caring and giving and wise and he totally helped me get sober,’ Azaria added.
‘And I really wish he could have found it in himself to stay with the sober life more consistently, but as a recovery guy, it was hard to read that too.’
He continued:: ‘I just felt so bad. I mean, I knew he had gone in and out for years, he documented it all publicly and then in the book, but it’s heartbreaking for those of us who loved him and knew him really well personally. We just missed him.
‘It’s one of the terrible things about this disease is it just takes away the person you love, and, you know, professionally, as an actor, he was so brilliant.
‘I just wish I and the world could have gotten what the rest of his career would have been,’ Azaria concluded.
