Matthew Perry was NEVER clean and lied about his sobriety, tragic star's friend claims, after autopsy revealed actor died of a ketamine overdose

Friends star Matthew Perry, who died last month aged 54 following a ketamine overdose, was 'never' clean.

The star said in his best-selling 2022 memoir that he had finally overcome his addictions with the help of a sober coach and best friend.

However, a close friend of the star who preferred not to be named said: 'He lied to everyone about being clean. He never was. It is very sad. You know, the biggest lie he told was probably to himself.'

The source added: 'He could be quite a manipulative person when it came to his struggles with using, but it was such a struggle, such a battle, and he battled every day to the end.'

An autopsy published Friday revealed that the star died from the 'acute effects of ketamine' and drowning, with Perry having similar quantities of ketamine in his system as a hospital patient under general anesthetic.

'The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner determined the cause of death for 54-year-old actor Matthew Langford Perry as the acute effects of ketamine,' the Los Angeles coroner's office said on Friday.

'Contributing factors in Mr Perry's death include drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death is accident.'

Perry was found face-down in the jacuzzi which adjoins the swimming pool at his Los Angeles home at 4.17pm on October 28. 

The medical examiner reported that he had been receiving ketamine infusion therapy as treatment for depression but the last session was a week and a half before he died, and the ketamine is only in your system for three to four hours, which means it did not lead directly to his death.

'At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,' the medical examiner, Raffi Djabourian, concluded.

A year before his death he released a tell-all memoir that included shocking details of his drug and alcohol addiction.

But he said in October 2022 that he was 18 months sober, though that was a year before his death. 

Entertainment reporter Athenna Crosby had lunch with him the day before he died and said that he was so committed to his sobriety that he refused to hold the wine menu.

Perry wrote that he spent $9 million trying to get sober, going to 6,000 AA meetings, 15 times to rehab, and was in detox 65 times.

At his lowest, he was popping 55 Vicodin a day to fuel his addiction.

Perry said he overcame addiction in 2021 and was leading a healthier lifestyle.

He took up pickle ball - a game similar to tennis and table tennis - and usually played it twice a day, friends said.

Perry wrote in his memoir that throughout his drug addiction and recovery he was helped by a female personal assistant he considered to be his rock and 'best friend'.

Morgan Moses, referred to in the book only by the pseudonym 'Erin', first met Perry when he was admitted to a rehab where she was working.

The pair subsequently struck up a friendship that would last nearly a decade and came to be the closest and most loving – though always platonic – relationship in his life.

Moses, 37, was a 'sober companion' whom the troubled Friends star described as 'the single nicest person in the world'.

On her LinkedIn page, Moses says she has worked 'full-time' as a 'sober companion' since 2018.

Among her skills listed are 'therapeutic crisis intervention', 'mental health first aid', 'behavioral intervention' and 'nutritional counselling'.

Originally a website designer, she is a graduate from Full Sail University in Florida, while her social media suggests she has also had her own addiction struggles and sobriety journey.

When investigators responded to Perry's home, they did not find any illegal drugs, but found prescription medication that was properly labeled and kept in storage bottles.

The medical examiner did find evidence of his years of drug and alcohol abuse, however, with Perry suffering from 'chronic hepatic congestion, liver' - a precursor to cirrhosis of the liver - although it had not advanced into cirrhosis.

He also had nephrosclerosis of the kidneys - a hardening of the tissues, caused by long-standing, poorly controlled high blood pressure and long term drug use.

Perry's autopsy also found chronic pancreatic fibrosis - opioids are suspected of causing damage to the pancreas.

His heart and lungs were also significantly damaged.

Perry weighed 216lbs, and was pronounced mildly obese.

In the memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote that after his colon exploded in 2018, he was prescribed opiates that he deemed insufficient to deal with his pain.

This prompted him to turn to street dealers to supply him with potentially fatal, possibly fentanyl-laced OxyContin.

'The street pills were something like $75 per pill, so I was giving the guy $3,000 at a time, many times a week,' he wrote.

Perry was laid to rest at an intimate ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills attended by his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, and David Schwimmer.