While talk with Hoda Kotb on her Making Space podcast, Matthew Perry’s stepfather, legendary journalist Keith Morrison opened up about life after Perry’s tragic passing.
“As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn’t go away,” Morrison told Kotb about grief. “It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time, and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain.”
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As Morrison continued, the last four months haven’t been “easy” for him, but “especially for [Perry’s] mom,” Suzanne who he married in 1981.
Morrison went on to talk a bit about Perry’s last months of his life. “Toward the end of his life, they were closer than I’ve seen them for decades,” Morrison said of Perry and his mom.
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As far as their relationship, Morrison said he and Perry “got along fine,” admitting that Perry’s “fiery personality” wasn’t always a match to his. Nonetheless, Morrison said they were close.
“I never tried to replace his dad … but I was there for him, and he knew it, and we were close.”
According to the journalist, Perry was happy, something he hadn’t been in quite some time. “He was happy, and he said so. And he hadn’t said that for a long time. So it’s a source of comfort, but also he didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair,” Morrison told Kotb.
When it came to Perry’s struggle with addiction, the late actor was also open about his journey. He was reportedly sober for about 19 months at the time of his passing.
Morrison told Kotb that Perry “felt like he was beating” the addictions. But he also knew “you never beat it.” That this battle was going to a lifelong thing for him.
And the news that his beloved stepson had passed away surprised him, Morrison admitted, but also didn’t in a way as well. “It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might.”
Morrison described Perry as a “larger-than-life person,” who managed to become the “center of attention everywhere he went.” And although his “goofy” and “funny” personality is gone, Morrison said “you still feel the echo of it everywhere.”
RELATED: Matthew Perry’s Cause of Death Revealed
Perry’s cause of death has been revealed as “acute effects of ketamine.” While drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine effects were listed as contributing factors. His death has been officially ruled an accident.