The Friends cast and Matthew Perry: Their true friendship off screen

The Friends cast have broken their silence to release a statement about the death of Matthew Perry.

Courteney Cox, Jennifer Anistion, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer have said they are "utterly devastated" by the loss of their co-star, who died at the age of 54 on Saturday 28th October 2023 after being found unresponsive in the jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home.

The actors worked together for 10 seasons on the hit sitcom between 1994 and 2004. They were working alongside one another as they went through marriages, breaks-ups, parenthood, health struggles and becoming world famous stars.

So they were not just friends on screen but formed close relationships. Here is a look at Perry's real friendship with his co-stars.

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel, broke the internet in 2019 with her first Instagram post – revealing she was spending an evening hanging out with all her old Friends co-stars.

In his memoir, Perry confessed he had had a crush on her.

He wrote in Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing about how he tried to impress her when they first met by telling her about some acting roles he had signed up to.

Perry said: "It was clear that this made her think I liked her too much, or in the wrong kind of way."

He admitted that while working with he found himself "frequently overanalysing" every conversation they had. But he eventually got over his crush, due to Aniston's '"deafening lack of interest."

Aniston has previously spoken about how much she cared about Perry, and how she worried about him as she watched him battle alcohol and drug addiction, but didn't know what to do to help.

She said in a tearful interview: "We, you know, we weren't equipped, we weren't – to deal with it."

Perry revealed it was Aniston who confronted him when he was drunk on the set of Friends.

Aniston told him during a filming break: "We know you're drinking." And this was one of the contributing factors to him eventually seeking help.

Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe, has revealed that Perry stole her a special present from the Friends set when the show came to an end.

Perry gave Kudrow the clock shaped cookie jar that says "Cookie time" because it had a special memory for her.

She revealed: "We were shooting a scene, years before we were finished and my line was, 'Oh! I better get going,' like, 'Oh! I'm late, I better get going.'

"As the words were coming out, I went, 'Oh, good, there's a clock.' Then I gestured to that, and said, 'Oh! Look at the time. I gotta get going.'

"And during shooting, Matthew said, 'Did you look at the cookie jar and say look at the time?'"

And when he presented her with the cookie jar years later asked him: "This was so nice – did you get permission?"

Matt LeBlanc

Chandler and Joey in Friends had the ultimate bromance and fans will always celebrate their close friendship.

And it seems it wasn't just for show.

Matt LeBlanc has called his co-stars family, saying: "Courteney and Lisa are like my big sisters, but Jen's like my little sister. Matthew's like my little brother, and David's like my big brother. That's how it all broke down. And it's literally just like chronological."

LeBlanc really was there for Perry. So much so that he was there to support him for his debut as a playwrite. Perry wrote and starred in The End Of Longing at The Playhouse Theatre in London in 2016. And LeBlanc by his side on opening night.

Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox is close friends with Aniston and Kudrow and she is often sharing pictures on her social media of them hanging out together.

But she used to spend her free time catching up with her on-screen husband Chandler, aka Perry, too.

In 2019 the pair had lunch and Cox paid tribute to Chandler's famous sarcasm, joking: "Guess who I had lunch with today....I KNOW!! Could I BE any happier?"

David Schwimmer

In 2016 the Friends cast all got together to pay tribute to director Jimmy Burrows, but Perry couldn't make it.

David Schwimmer said at the time: "Sure I’m sad, but I’m happy for him, he’s doing a play in London and it’s thrilling.”

Read more: Matthew Perry

• Friends cast releases joint statement honoring late co-star Matthew Perry (ABC News, 3 min read)

• Matthew Perry: From The Odd Couple to 17 Again - the Friends star's other roles

• Matthew Perry’s famous exes and how they remember him

Watch: Friends stars utterly devastated by Matthew Perry's death