Jennifer Aniston is said to have “kept to herself” at Matthew Perry’s funeral.
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.
An onlooker told DailyMail.com: “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.”
While it remains unclear exactly how the ’17 Again’ star died, the 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 Diane 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… .”
