Matthew Perry Reveals Why He & Julia Roberts Really Split: I Felt ‘Unlovable’
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts secretly dated between 1995 and 1996. Learn about their beginnings and why they broke up here.
Matthew Perry made a shocking revelation in his brand-new memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: He dated Julia Roberts! The Friends alum, 53, candidly recalled how his short-lived romance with the Pretty Woman actress, 55, began and how his insecurities encouraged him to dump the actress, who he admitted was likely out of his league to begin with. “[Friends co-creator] Marta Kauffman approached me and said that I should probably send flowers to Julia Roberts. You mean the biggest-star-in-the-universe Julia Roberts? ‘Sure, great, why?’ I said,” he wrote, as reported by Us Weekly. “Turned out Julia had been offered the post–Super Bowl episode in season 2 and she would only do the show if she could be in my story line. Let me say that again— she would only do the show if she could be in my story line. (Was I having a good year or what?).”
Matthew then said he sent Julia three dozen roses and a paper that explained quantum physics, the latter per her request. The gestures won Julia’s heart, and she appeared on the show. By the time the episode was out in 1996, Julia and Matthew were a couple. Sadly, their relationship met its demise shortly after the episode aired. Recalling the split, Matthew admitted to dumping the stunning star because he was too insecure to be with her. His insecurities were fueled by his addiction to pain meds.
“Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me — why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable,” he divulged. “So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts. She might have considered herself slumming it with a TV guy, and TV guy was now breaking up with her.”
Matthew opened up about his decades-long struggles with addiction, which saw him taking to Vicodin, Methadone, Xanax, and alcohol, in his book. Throwing in his beloved sense of humor, he joked, “People would be surprised to know that I have mostly been sober since 2001. Save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps over the years.”
As he was promoting his tell-all book, he confessed that his co-star Jennifer Aniston, 53, was the one who checked in on him the most amid his struggles. “I’m really grateful to her for that,” the troubled actor stated to Diane Sawyer during their chat that aired on Oct. 28 on ABC. He also revealed “Jenny”, as he affectionally called her, confronted him about his excessive drinking. “Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he said.
Jennifer, of course, came up in his memoir as he discussed Friends — and even his love life. The Fools Rush In star admitted he tried to pique the Morning Show actress’ interest in him before they become co-stars, but his attempts fell flat. Luckily, by the time they got to working together, he noted he and Jen were “able to sail right past the past and focus on the fact that [they] had both gotten the best job Hollywood had to offer.”