Matthew Perry's family speaks out a year after death as his mom recalls 1 of their haunting last conversations: �

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"There was an inevitability to what was going to happen next to him, and he felt it very strongly," Suzanne Morrison recalls of Perry.

In a series of interviews, Perry's mother, sister and stepfather Keith Morrison opened up about how they are navigating their grief while honoring the late actor with the Matthew Perry Foundation.

Suzanne Morrison believes her son had a "premonition" of his death as she recalled one of their final conversations.

 
 

"He went through a period, interestingly enough, just before he died when he was showing me one of his new houses. He came up to me and he said, 'I love you so much, and I'm so happy to be with you now," she told Today's Savannah Guthrie. "It was almost as though it was a premonition or something. I didn't think about it at the time, but I thought, 'How long has it been since we've had a conversation like that?' It's been years."

Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023. He was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home. The medical examiner determined he died from the "acute effects of ketamine."

"There was an inevitability to what was going to happen next to him, and he felt it very strongly," Suzanne added. "But he said, 'I'm not frightened anymore.' And it worried me."

The family's full interview will air on the Today show Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of Perry's death.

 
 

Keith Morrison spoke with Hello! Canada as the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada launches in the country. He called his stepson's death "incredibly shocking."

"Anybody who has lost a child will tell you that, even if you are in some way prepared for the possibility, it's shattering. What we have decided to do is hang on to that determination and try to do something useful," the NBC Dateline correspondent explained.

Keith said Perry "would like to be remembered for doing something to help people suffering from addiction." The actor, who was 54 when he died, was candid about his addiction struggles.

The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada will help recovering addicts after treatment for substance abuse disorders. Perry's younger sister Caitlin is the executive director.

 
 

"The work that I'm doing now is very selfish because it kind of feels like I'm sitting right next to Matthew, working with him every day on something that was important to him," she told the magazine. "I have this treasure of getting to keep him very, very close to my life all the time, which is wonderful."

The home where Perry died just sold, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The 3,500-square-foot house in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of L.A. was bought by a real estate developer and movie producer based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

What happened in the pilot?

From the water-soaked opening sequence — showing the New York City-based 20-somethings dancing around a fountain to the Rembrandts song “I’ll Be There for You” with props (umbrellas! rubber ducks!) — it was clear the show was going to be something special.

 
 

The first episode, originally called "The Pilot," introduced us to Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Ross and Phoebe. The characters and format of the series created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman really didn’t change much over the next decade. It was about friendship, love and life — with one-liners, especially from the late Perry, flying.

Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer (back to camera)
Rachel (Aniston) ditched her fiancé Barry at the altar in the first episode — and then started anew with help from her old pal Monica (Cox). (Warner Bros./Courtesy: Everett Collection)

Ross pined for Rachel from the jump. Chandler and Joey’s banter made for a beautiful bromance. Mother hen Monica was already uptight. Delightfully spacey Phoebe talked about cleansing auras. And Aniston already had the haircut that would guide a thousand shears.

The episode, later renamed “The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate,” referring to runaway bride Rachel, started and ended in familiar territory: Central Perk. That orange couch they sat on became like another character.

Did the cast feel chemistry from the start?

Pretty much. The cast members had all been trying to make it in Hollywood, appearing in different pilots and projects, but “Friends Like Us” — as it was known before the title was trimmed — was different.

 
 

“That was lightning in a bottle,” Cox said in an interview with the Off Camera Show. “To have those writers, those creators of the show and the team they put together, and the actors — it just worked. The casting was perfect. It really was.”

Perry, who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2023, detailed making the pilot for the show in his bestselling memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big, Terrible Thing.

“It was so special it felt like we’d all been together in a previous life or something,” he wrote of the chemistry. “Immediately, there was electricity in the air… I could already tell this was going to be big; I knew it from the start.”

Schwimmer initially passed on the role of Ross, but then came to his senses. Perry was the last to be cast, as Chandler. After that, the six actors came together for the first time — although Perry and Aniston already knew each other. He had once asked her out on a date; she declined. (Ouch.)

 
 

Earlier this year, Aniston remembered “stepping onto the set” for the first time, “and I don't know, it was just magic. It was the best."

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