Matthew Perry's stepfather Keith Morrison makes heartbreaking revelation about Friends star's final

June 2024 · 4 minute read

The Friends star passed away in October at age 54

Days after Matthew Perry's last will and testament came to light, his stepfather Keith Morrison's new interview, where he spoke about the actor's passing, was released.

The veteran NBC and Dateline correspondent, 76, spoke with fellow NBC News anchor Hoda Kotb on her podcast Making Space, which was released on March 13.

Matthew suddenly passed away from "the acute effects of ketamine" last October at the age of 54 after struggling with substance abuse issues for years, although he had embraced sobriety in the time leading up to his death.

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When Today Show anchor Hoda asked Keith how he and the family had been dealing with Matthew's death, he responded: "It's as other people have told me hundreds of times. 

"It doesn't go away yet. 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."

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Keith has been married to Matthew's mother Suzanne Perry Morrison since 1981 after her divorce from his father John Perry, and the NBC correspondent affirmed that the news hit the Friends star's mother hardest.

"It's especially (not easy) for his mom," he added. "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, and texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don't share with their mothers."

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However, he revealed that in his final few days, Matthew was the happiest he'd been in a while, and he made sure to say as much. "He was happy, and he said so.

"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."

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When asked if he was surprised to receive the news, the Canadian journalist responded: "It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might…So yes, and no, I guess is the answer to that."

Keith gushed about his relationship with the actor, who was a pre-teen when he tied the knot with his mother, and the decades over which they'd built a solid foundation for their bond.

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"He was a larger than life person," he shared. "He was always the center of attention everywhere he went. 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." He opened up about the late star's more "intense" side outside of his popular on-screen persona, calling him "loud and out there and funny and aggressive," saying their personalities were "chalk and cheese."

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