Friends star Matthew Perry is ‘dying to be a dad’ with fiancee Molly Hurwitz after drug battle held him back, ex claims
MATTHEW Perry’s ex-lover says he's "dying to be a dad" with fiancee Molly Hurwitz as the actor has “always wanted to have a family,” but his battle with addiction held him back.
Speaking after the Friends star announced his engagement to Molly, Kayti Edwards, who knew the actor for more than a decade, has lifted the lid on her time with Matthew and how she witnessed his
Kayti, who had a close relationship with Matthew in the 2000s, said the pair went through a period of being intimate before becoming good friends and she felt he tried to hide his addiction from women he seriously dated.
Last week, the 51-year-old actor revealed he’s with literary agent Molly, who he’s been with for more than two years, describing her as “the greatest woman on the face of the planet.”
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Kayti said: “I always knew that he wanted to have a family.
“I would be like, ‘Well, you need to find a partner before you can be a dad.’ I’m happy he found somebody that stuck.
“Molly will be his anchor, but his child will be his serious anchor. He will actually think twice before he wants to drink again.
“He’s 51, he’s mid life, he needs to experience marriage and children. He loves children.
“He always had a car seat in the back of his car for his best friend’s daughter, and now he has a niece that he adores.
“I always thought that he was just this bachelor … never wanted to settle down. He always had these random girlfriends that he’d be with periodically and then break up with them.
“When I hung out with him he was never living with any of his girlfriends, I always thought he had a fear of commitment.
“If he had somebody living there he couldn’t really do what he wanted to do you know, he’s an addict."
She added: “There are some addicts and alcoholics who like to have a lot of people around and hang out, get loaded and pull all-nighters.
“And then there’s the kind that just don’t want anyone to know and just wallow by themselves, he’s that person. He wanted to be by himself.”
Kayti, who first met Matthew when he auditioned for her grandfather before reconnecting years later at a recovery meeting, feels Molly will have to be “strong” and “not naive” to deal with his addiction issues.
Throughout one of his darkest periods around 2011, she worried he may die from his drinking and drug binges as she claims he took everything from cocaine to heroin.
She’s happy he’s and decided to take a leap by popping the question - after briefly separated earlier this year.
During his friendship with Kayti, he dated fashion student Rachel Dunn for two years before moving onto . Their relationship ended in 2012 after six years together.
Perry has been very open about his long-time battle with addiction.
He famously checked himself into rehab twice during his time on Friends, first in 1997 to treat his addiction to prescription pills, after getting hooked following a jet-ski accident.
He then returned in 2001 to deal with Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines and alcohol addictions.
“He’d go on bouts of being really good and wanting to change his life around, and then he’d fall off the deep end,” Kayti said.
“He’s the kind of alcoholic [and] addict that takes it overboard, doesn’t shower and just lets himself go. It’s hard to watch.
“He would get one or two years sober, but he couldn’t hold his sobriety. Anyone who was with him was like, ‘Ok, when’s the next bomb going to drop?’
“For someone to be with Matthew and marry Matthew [they have to] completely understand the addict’s mind.
“She’ll have to be strong and not naive, look for the signs...
“I read about Molly and she seems like a pretty tough girl. I don’t think she’d put up with any of that."
Kayti, who says she only ever dealt with her friends addiction issues and was not an addict herself, alleges in the past has dated women who often couldn’t handle his problems.
She claims they would give him “ultimatums” to encourage him to get clean before the relationships broke down.
“He would pick these girls who didn’t know anything, kind of naive to it [his addictions],” Kayti said.
“I know that he didn’t really like LA girls. There were a couple of girls in recovery meetings who didn’t really have their s**t together he would hang out with here and there.
“[But] he wanted someone successful, he looks for driven women, somebody with a career.
“And he’s very private about his relationships, very rarely would he want to be seen with anybody.
“Even when we went out for dinner he’d be like, ‘Let’s get the table in the back’. He was always really nervous.”
Kayti admits she was surprised by his public statement announcing his engagement after him and Molly reportedly broke up, and suspects he may have been “at a crossroads.”
As well as his addiction issues, Matthew has had serious health problems in recent years, and was even left bedridden for three months in 2018 after being struck down with gastrointestinal perforation.
In photographs , he was also seen leaving a medical facility in LA earlier this year, clutching his stomach.
“I think his age and his health he’s like, ‘I’m gonna try this out’ [marriage]. And she’s [Molly] been his rock for this many years,” Kayti said.
“I hope that he stays on this path. This marriage thing could really scare him straight into being sober.
“You get to a point where you’re just tired of telling your story. You get like, ‘I’m done, I want to settle down, this girl knows me, she’s been with me through all this, now I owe it to her to give it a shot.’
“Matthew has never really lived with a girl like this, he’s never had someone to answer to and deal with everything that comes with marriage.
“He’s getting older and to be on dating apps at 51, it’s kind of depressing.
"It’s good for her, he doesn’t have any crazy ex-wives, he doesn’t have any children he’s paying child support on. Normally at that age, you have that.
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“And she’s probably never been married, doesn’t have kids. It’s a fresh start for him to do this.”
The Sun has reached out to Matthew Perry's rep for comment.