Keith Morrison opens up about his stepson Matthew Perry's life, death and legacy

A year ago this month, Keith Morrison and his wife, Suzanne Perry Morrison, were out walking their dog when they received a devastating phone call. Their 54-year-old son and stepson, Friends star Matthew Perry, was found floating face down in his hot tub after a fatal ketamine overdose at his home in Los Angeles.

"Ask any parent who's lost a child," Morrison tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "It's one thing for me — I'm his stepfather and we were close, but I'm the stepfather. I'm not his mother. Ask any mother what it's like to lose a child. It doesn't matter whether he's five or 55."

In 2022, a year before his death, Perry detailed his lifelong struggle with addiction in a memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. At the time, he was sober and forward-looking, which made his death a year later even more shocking.

"As Matthew himself said a number of times in the last few years of his life, 'If I die suddenly, people will be shocked, possibly, but not surprised,'" his stepfather says.

Though Perry had relapsed several times throughout his life, his family hoped the book would finally put an end to the cycle of his addiction. They could see it had given him a new sense of purpose.

"A few months before that, he could barely walk from his house to his car," Morrison recalls. "The idea that he could actually sit down and write a book was wild — and yet he did. And that helped keep him clean, I guess.… I really believed this time it was going to work. But again, this is the drug addict who understands everything about drugs."

According to Morrison, Perry was "as many addicts are, a world-class expert in drugs." After getting sober, the actor decided to undergo ketamine infusion therapy, administered intravenously with the supervision of a doctor, to treat his depression and anxiety.

"He told us repeatedly about how effective it was to wipe any depression away," Morrison says. "His mother was very suspicious of this. She didn't think ketamine was a good idea, but he kept saying … 'It's not addictive. That's the great thing about this drug. It's revolutionary. It's going to eradicate depression.' But his addictive personality was so strong that, you know, when the treatment stopped, he couldn't."

Perry's death is now the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. Recently, five people were charged in connection to his death, including his assistant and two doctors. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said the "defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves." In one instance, the actor paid $2,000 US for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12.

As a correspondent for the true-crime news show Dateline NBC since 1995, Morrison says he's very familiar with this type of case and the anger it can bring about in families of the deceased.

"I've sat across from probably literally thousands of people over the years who have felt that very anger," he tells Power. "So I guess my perspective is a little bit different. Suzanne is furious, especially at the people who were trusted more than anyone else. I'm just very sad and not surprised. The venality of some of these professionals is just — it still shocks me."

Perry said he wasn't afraid to die

While Morrison says Perry "desperately wanted to get better," his fame and fortune was a huge barrier to his recovery because it meant he had nearly unlimited access to any substance he wanted.

"He'd be in a hospital somewhere or a rehab centre and he had, you know, some girl on the outside running off to get drugs and bring them to him secretly," Morrison says. "He attempted to have some opioids FedExed to him in a major New York hospital while he was being treated for drug addiction."

Near the end of his life, Perry was extremely close with his mother, whom he leaned on heavily for support and always called first in a crisis. "He and his mother were as close as any two people I knew — clearly loved each other quite intensely," Morrison says. "But also, you know, when they fought, they fought intensely."

He was able to get it all out in the book and go and tell people about [his addiction issues]. It wasn't a shameful secret anymore.- Keith Morrison

Just a couple days before he died, Perry and his mother spent a day together. "She said [it was] one of the sweetest days that they've had together in a long time, and he seemed very happy," Morrison says. "[He] actually said to her … he isn't afraid to die anymore. I think he was relating that to the fact that he was able to get it all out in the book and go and tell people about [his addiction issues]. It wasn't a shameful secret anymore."

Now, Perry's family is honouring his legacy by launching two new foundations in his name. On Thursday night, in his hometown of Ottawa, the actor's family will launch the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which aims to support people recovering from addiction. They've also established a similar foundation in the U.S.

"I'm very pleased and happy that we're able to be in Ottawa and open this new foundation because I know it is something that he would be very, very happy about," Morrison says. "[We're working with] some amazing people, who are offering opportunities and ideas for treating addiction which go beyond anything [Matthew] was able to find anywhere to help him. Even though, you know, he had endless money to throw at the problem, there wasn't the kind of treatment that was going to fix it for him or help him fix it for good."

The full interview with Keith Morrison is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Keith Morrison produced by Matthew Murphy.