Lauren Graham is opening up about the close bond she shared with Matthew Perry, who died unexpectedly last month at age 54.
“I am still in shock,” the Gilmore Girls alum said during an appearance on CBS Mornings Thursday. “I mean, it’s just a really tragic loss, and he leaves his beautiful work behind. And that’s something to be thankful for, and again, the book [Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing] really meant something to him, so it was a really happy year for him.”
Graham added, “No one made me laugh as hard. I mean, just tears, streaming. There was just such joy in being around him and being his friend.”
The Los Angeles Police Department found the Friends star unresponsive in the hot tub at his L.A. home on Oct. 28. His cause of death is still under investigation as the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Office awaits toxicology results. The coroner’s office had listed the pending case as “deferred,” but later removed it from its website.
Last year, Perry released his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, where he reflected on his decades-long battle with addiction.
Graham noted that Perry was overjoyed with how well-received his book was. “This last year, he was so proud of the book he wrote, and of how many people it touched,” she said. “It was a success that gave him a level of happiness that I hadn’t seen in him for a really long time, so that’s a nice memory.”
The actress was also one of a few faces to be included in his 2022 memoir, in which he shared a photo of the pair, adding the caption, “Me and the beautiful Lauren Graham.”
Graham and Perry initially met while filming 2008’s Birds of America and remained friends afterward. She also made an appearance on one episode of Perry’s show The Odd Couple in 2015.
Perry previously called the actress “one of my favorite people” during a fan Q&A for The Odd Couple. He added at the time, “We have great chemistry when working together and it’s fun to work with a close friend.”
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