Matthew Perry's Stepfather Keith Morrison Says Actor 'Truly Didn't' Know How Beloved He Was Before Death (Exclusive)

10/29/2024 04:00 AM

"He, I think, had [felt] that he failed," says Morrison, who is focused on carrying on the star's legacy through a new foundation started by the Morrison family

While the outpouring of love for Matthew Perry has continued after his death a year ago, his family says that the actor "truly didn't" realize how beloved he was. 

"There was a period where you'd pick up a tabloid and you'd see a picture of an overweight actor looking not great, walking along the street or going to a restaurant," his stepfather Keith Morrison tells PEOPLE.

"And he, I think, had [felt] that he failed," says the Dateline host, 77, who is married to Matthew's mom, Suzanne Morrison. "He didn't understand that he was somebody who was loved — he would never have believed it."

That had begun to change with the publication of Perry's bestselling 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, in which the Friends actor revealed the toll of his drug addiction and how close he'd come to death on multiple occasions.

As Keith recalls, "He came back from the book tour and he still was pinching himself, [saying] 'I can't believe that people actually seem to like me.'"

And it was exactly that — his candor about his addiction that had touched people. "It was brutally out there," says Keith, "and he seemed to be at a place where he had finally beaten it. I think he put that in the book in a way, hoping that he would beat this. Maybe if I say it in public, if I say it in a book, if they remind me of it all the time, maybe I can succeed." 

Related: Matthew Perry's Foundation Looks to His Memoir for Guidance: We Hear Him Saying 'Help as Many People as Possible' (Exclusive)

"He put it all out there," adds Keith.

Still, the actor continued to struggle and he developed an addiction to ketamine, which eventually killed him. According to the plea agreement of his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, in the final days of his life, he was injecting Perry with between six to eights shots a day. 

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Now, one year after his death from "acute effects of ketamine," and subsequent drowning in his outdoor jacuzzi, his family still feels the aftershocks.

"Matthew said to us — and he said it publicly, 'That if I die suddenly you may be shocked, but you probably won't be surprised,'" reflects Keith. "So it's that kind of thing."

"It's a disease — and it's a disease that affects vast numbers of people," he says. 

Related: Matthew Perry's Family Opens Up About the Star's 'Painful' Death Investigation: 'It Makes You Angry' (Exclusive)

Keith, along with Suzanne and their daughters, Emily, Madeline and Caitlin, spoke to Today on Oct. 28 marking the one-year anniversary of Perry's death. Perry's family told the morning show that they were aware the actor had been using ketamine. But as Keith said, "we didn't know how much of it he was taking."

Keith stressed that he thought Perry was still sober. "It certainly seemed like it to me, that he was — though he had been treated with ketamine, that it hadn't turned into something that he couldn't control," Keith said. "Although, you know, he was a guy who would make decisions. 'I can handle this. I can do this. I can tell you what's right. I know the whole system inside and out, I know what the drug will do to me.' So there was that worry of, 'What's he really doing?'"

"I don't even know if in his mind he had relapsed," said Madeline, a point with which the family agreed.

Asked what his stepson wanted people to understand about addiction, Keith tells PEOPLE, "That every person suffering with substance abuse needs to understand, if they don't already, that this is not a moral failing."

To that end, their family has also found purpose through helping others via the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which launched in October by Suzanne and Caitlin. There is also a U.S.-based Matthew Perry Foundation, established just after his death, which makes grants to grassroots organizations "looking to fill the gaps in people's recovery journey," Doug Chapin, the board president and Perry's former manager, tells PEOPLE.

For more on Matthew Perry and his family, pick up a copy of this week's PEOPLE.

"We're not unique," notes Keith. "Our son was famous. And those I meet on the streets who say, 'I'm sorry for your loss,' I appreciate every single one of them. And somehow I want them to know that I completely understand that we are just one family among millions who have suffered this same kind of loss and we're one family because we know that his dying wish was to be remembered for helping other people, more than his famousness for Friends."

"That has now become our mission in life," says Morrison, "to carry that wish on."

For more information and to donate, visit the Matthew Perry Foundation and the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada.

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