'Dateline' correspondent Keith Morrison remembers stepson Matthew Perry: 'Not easy'
"Dateline NBC" correspondent Keith Morrison is paying tribute to stepson Matthew Perry.
On a Wednesday episode of the "Today" show's podcast, "Making Space" hosted by Hoda Kotb, Morrison spoke about the "Friends" star's death, saying the loss is "not easy, especially for his mom (Suzanne)."
"As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn't go away. It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain," Morrison told Kotb.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office revealed in December that the cause of Perry's October death was an accident from "the acute effects of ketamine." Contributing factors were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine.
Morrison, the NBC mainstay, told Kotb he wasn't "giving too much away" by sharing a heartbreaking detail about Perry and his relationship with Suzanne.
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"Towards the end of his life, they were closer than I'd seen them for decades. Texting each other constantly and sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don't share with their mothers," Morrison said.
Perry was found unresponsive and face-down in the "heated end" of his pool on Oct. 28. The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed to USA TODAY that firefighters responded to Perry's Pacific Palisades home at 4:07 p.m. that day and found "an adult male unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi.
Morrison added, "as he said himself, 'If I suddenly died, people would be shocked but not too many people would be surprised,' and he was right," saying Perry's death was "the news you never want to get but think someday you might."
"He was happy, and he said so. And he hadn't said that for a longtime, and so that is a source of comfort, but also, he didn't get to have his third act. And that's not fair," Morrison told Kotb.
Morrison said that Perry's struggles with alcohol and drug addiction were a "disease" and "difficult to beat." Morrison and Perry's mom have since started The Matthew Perry Foundation to assist agencies and organizations that help people who are struggling with addiction and substance abuse.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, call the 24/7, 365-day-a-year national helpline 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for treatment referral and information service.