Matthew Perry's Stepfather Keith Morrison Gives Insight Into His Final Days

Keith Morrison; Matthew Perry

Keith Morrison is opening up about the loss of his stepson, Matthew Perry over four months after his tragic passing.

The beloved actor, most known for playing Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends, sadly died at the age of 54 in October 2023. Morrison, who is married to the late star's mother, Suzanne, was seen arriving at Perry's house in Los Angeles shortly after his death, and later was identified as the informant who provided the details for his stepson's death certificate.

Now, months later, the Dateline correspondent is offering more insight into the end of Perry's life, including details about the actor's state of mind in the weeks leading up to his death.

According to Morrison, 76, Perry was happier than he'd been in a while before his untimely passing.

"He was happy, and he said so," Morrison said in the Wednesday, March 13 episode of Hoda Kotb's Making Space podcast. "And he hadn't said that for a long time."

While the TV journalist said it's a "source of comfort" to know that Perry was in a good place before his death, Morrison still noted, "He didn't get to have this third act, and that's not fair."

He also gave insight into the star's relationship with his mother in the weeks before his death, stating, “I don’t think I’m giving away too much if I say that toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades and texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”

Morrison then went on to share that even Perry himself used to say that if he died suddenly, "people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised," considering his difficult past with substance addiction. "And he was right," Morrison added.

Perry died on Oct. 28 while in the hot tub at his home in the Pacific Palisades. His cause of death was later revealed to be the result of "acute effects of ketamine." Contributing factors were listed as drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine.

"It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might," Morrison said of learning about Perry's death, the grief of which he said is still with him "all the time."

"It's with you every day," he stated. "It’s with you all the time, and there's some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and it’s not easy."

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