Matthew Perry’s sobriety reportedly came with an extraordinary financial cost. In a trailer for a new Netflix documentary, his sister Mia Bowick says the Friends actor spent $7 million trying to overcome his dependence on drugs and alcohol.
The disclosure appears in The One About Matthew Perry, which examines the actor’s life, addiction and legacy. Netflix is scheduled to release the documentary on October 27, 2026, three years after Perry died at his Los Angeles home.
What did Perry’s sister say about his addiction?
Bowick describes her brother’s life as a mixture of success, humor and profound personal difficulty.
“All great stories have comedy and tragedy in them, and that certainly was Matthew’s story,” she says in the trailer.
She also recalls Perry speaking about an emotional struggle that continued despite his fame and wealth.
“My brother would talk about that feeling of emptiness or loneliness that he couldn’t quite fill,” Bowick says. “He spent $7 million trying to get sober. That’s how seriously he took his disease.”
The figure underlines how extensively Perry pursued treatment. Addiction, apparently, does not offer a celebrity discount.
What happened before Matthew Perry’s death?
Perry was found unresponsive in the swimming pool at his Los Angeles home in October 2023. His death was attributed to a cardiac event, with ketamine use listed as a contributing factor.
Prosecutors later said Perry’s personal assistant and two doctors supplied him with more than $50,000 worth of ketamine during the weeks before his death.
His assistant, 60-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison in connection with the case.
The documentary arrives after years of public discussion about Perry’s efforts to remain drug and alcohol free, much of it prompted by his own candid accounts. Bowick’s comments add a stark financial measure to that struggle, while the film promises a broader look at the person behind one of television’s most recognizable performances.
