How Matthew Perry spent millions to avoid death from drug overdose

A year before passing away, Matthew Perry opened up about his struggle with addiction and how he almost died fighting it.

The Friends actor spoke about it in an interview with PEOPLE last year, prior to the release of his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

Sharing how his growing drug addiction nearly killed him when he was 49, Matthew shared that his colon burst due to opioid addiction which sent him in a coma for two weeks.

He was in the hospital for another five months and had to use a colostomy bag for a year. According to Matthew, the doctors informed his family that he only had a "2 percent chance to live."

“I didn't know how to stop. If the police came over to my house and said, 'If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,' I'd start packing. I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive,” Matthew recalled.

Moreover, he shared that he went to rehab 15 times and spent “a fortune” trying to get sober. 

In another interview with The New York Times, he once disclosed that he "probably spent $9 million or something" trying to overcome his addiction.

On Saturday, Matthew was found dead in his LA home’s jacuzzi after his assistant found him unresponsive. According to the police, the actor drowned following a cardiac arrest.