Matthew Perry’s Ex-Girlfriend Claimed He Relapsed Before Death: He Was ‘Mattman’ When He Wasn’t Sober

Matthew Perry’s ex-girlfriend Kayti Edwards is opening up about something related to his tragic passing. The former model surmises that the Friends star might have had a relapse in the final moments of his life. “I know Matthew and I know that he wouldn’t have just drowned,” Edwards claimed in an interview she gave to The Sun. “I think he might have taken pills in the week leading up to this.”

After meeting Perry at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, the former model briefly dated him in 2006. She later worked as his assistant in 2011 and stayed in touch with him throughout the years. 

Edwards knew the actor might have been high since he had used his alter ego, "Mattman," in a social media post days before he passed, per PageSix. Kayti, Mary Poppins actress Julie Andrews' step-granddaughter, says she felt warning signs when she saw the post.

Edwards felt that Perry had been posting far more frequently than normal on social media. Five days before he passed away, he posted his last Instagram photo, featuring him in a Jacuzzi and signed "Mattman," an alias he created out of his Batman fascination. “That Mattman thing was not something he did when he was sober,” she claimed, per Marca.

“Mattman would come out when he was not sober and he felt kind of invincible. I was around when he was getting high, although I was not getting high with him, and when I would say maybe he should cool it a little bit with the drugs, he would say, ‘No, I’m Mattman’,” Edwards added of Perry.

Perry was discovered unconscious in the Jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home last month, seemingly drowning. His terrible demise shocked his fans all around the world. While further thorough testing is being done and Perry's exact cause of death is still unknown, friends and family have stressed that he was sober. Even the initial toxicology reports found no trace of meth or fentanyl in his system.

Kayti's aspersions come even as apart from a few prescription medicines, no illegal narcotics were discovered on Perry's Pacific Palisades digs property. “They said there were no prescription painkillers at the scene, which doesn’t surprise me, because he didn’t leave drugs lying around,” Edwards explained. “He was paranoid and would take them all, so there wasn’t any evidence, and then go out for more when he was ready to,” she revealed.

Kayti, who spoke for the last time with the actor last year after he wrote his autobiography Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, claimed he liked to be in the water when he was intoxicated. “One time, his neighbor in Hollywood Hills found Matthew naked and high in his swimming pool. I had to go over there and get him out of his neighbor’s pool. He had a thing with water when he was doing drugs. He always wanted to be in the pool or the Jacuzzi.”

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 12, 2023. It has since been updated.