Gwyneth Paltrow reflects on the "magical summer" she spent with Matthew Perry in touching tribute

Gwyneth Paltrow reflected on her relationship with Matthew Perry as tributes to the "Friends" actor continued to pour in over the weekend. Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the iconic 1990s sitcom, died Saturday at 54 years old. 

Paltrow, who is 51, shared a photo of a younger Perry on Instagram and wrote about a "magical summer" they spent together early in their careers. She said the two met in 1993 at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts, where they spent "most of the summer doing plays." 

"He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be with," she wrote. "We drove out to swim in creeks, had beers in the local college bar, kissed in a field of long grass."

"It was a magical summer," she said.  

At the time, Paltrow recalled, Perry had already filmed the pilot episode of "Friends," but it had not yet aired.

"He was nervous, hoping his big break was just around the corner," she wrote. "It was." 

The hit sitcom, which ran for 10 seasons, became one of the most-viewed TV shows of all time. Perry co-starred as the sweet but cynical and sarcastic Chandler Bing. 

An estimated 51.1 million viewers would watch the series finale in 2004, and the show would go on to find generations of new fans thanks to syndication and streaming.  

"It's great, it's a wonderful time in my life," he told CBS News of his time on "Friends" in a 2015 interview. "People come up to me that I know were not born when we shot the show, for sure. And they're just surprised at how elderly I look."

In his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," Perry described his brief "make-out session in a closet with Gwyneth Paltrow" the summer before "Friends" premiered. In an interview with GQ, he hoped that she would "find it to be a cute story." 

"It'd be bad if Gwyneth Paltrow hated me," he told the magazine. "I wouldn't like that."

Perry struggled for years with addiction to drugs and alcohol, including during his heyday on "Friends," and wrote candidly in his memoir about the toll it took.

He was found unresponsive in his jacuzzi on Saturday, and police reported that here were no obvious signs of trauma. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office said Sunday that an autopsy has been completed, and it is awaiting toxicology results. 

"We stayed friends for a while until we drifted apart, but I was always happy to see him when I did," Paltrow's post continued. "I am super sad today, as so many of us are."

"I hope Matthew is at peace at long last. I really do."

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Michael Roppolo

Michael Roppolo is a CBS News reporter. He covers a wide variety of topics, including science and technology, crime and justice, and disability rights.

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