As the cast of Friends wept at Matthew Perry’s funeral, Jennifer Aniston kept her own grief private and is said to have largely “kept to herself”.
The 54-year-old actress was at the funeral for her former Friends co-star - who was found dead in a suspected drowning at the age of 54 towards the end of October - on Friday with her fellow cast members Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, and Lisa Kudrow.
Speaking to Daily Mail, an onlooker said: “She was one of the first to arrive. She kept herself to herself. This is a high-profile gathering.”
Perry had suffered from addiction to alcohol and drugs throughout his life and another insider explained that Aniston had really believed that his “worst days” were in the past and his passing as come as a “bitter body blow” to her.
The source said: “Nobody shed more tears for Matthew during the darkest points of his struggles with addiction than Jennifer. There was speculation at the time of the 2021 Friends reunion that Matthew wouldn’t be a part of it because his demons had gotten the better of him. But Jennifer absolutely wouldn’t have done it without him.
“He put in the work and made it a success even though he seemed frail. But Jennifer genuinely thought his worst days were behind him. So, his death just two years later has come as a bitter body blow to her.”
It’s not the first time the pair’s close relationship has been revealed. Last year ahead of the release of his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry spoke to Diane Sawyer revealing how his co-stars of the hit 90s show supported him: “Jennifer, she says, ‘We know you’re drinking’,” Diane said to the actor. Responding to Sawyer, Perry replied: “Yeah, imagine how scary a moment that was.”
He then went on to reveal: “She was the one that reached out the most. You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
While it remains unclear exactly how the 17 Again star died, an insider insisted that it is irrelevant whether it was a drowning accident or related to his addiction issues because Aniston had been “dreading” the day for the past 20 years and had striven to help him in any way she could.
The insider added: “It doesn’t matter whether he died as a result of a freak accident or whether it was directly connected to his drug issues, this was a day that Jennifer has dreaded coming for 20 years. She always wanted to help Matthew any way she could – that was a constant for her.”
Since the tragedy, an interview has now resurfaced from 2004 when Aniston told Sawyer, 77, of her terror over the prospect of Perry dying before his time.
When Sawyer asked what her former Friends co-star didn’t know about himself and needed to hear, Aniston said: “That he’s alright. He struggled, and we didn’t know. We weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that.
“And the idea of ever losing him,” she said tearing up.