In a new interview, the actress revealed that she and the rest of the sitcom’s cast had seemingly been mourning Perry even before his passing, due to the toll his battle with drug addiction had taken on his life.

Looking back, Jennifer Aniston said she partly believes Matthew Perry’s death was for the best, despite how deeply the loss hurt them.

Jennifer Aniston’s September cover for Vanity Fair magazine came with more than a few admissions from the Hollywood star, including reflections on the death of her friend and “Friends” co-star.

The actress had been one of the strongest pillars of support for the late actor as he battled drug addiction, a fact that Perry himself admitted to in an October 2022 interview with Diane Sawyer.

Now, nearly two years after the actor lost his battle with substance abuse, Aniston has seemingly hinted that she and her sitcom co-stars had long felt his death was inevitable.

“We did everything we could when we could. But it almost felt like we’d been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight,” she told the outlet.

Reflecting further on the loss, Aniston shared that while his death broke her heart, she takes comfort in knowing his struggles with addiction are over.

“As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there’s a part of me that thinks this is better. I’m glad that he’s out of pain,” she continued.

At the height of his addiction, while still starring in the sitcom, Perry was taking up to 55 Vicodin pills a day, and his weight had dropped to just 128 pounds.

“I didn’t know how to stop,” he told People Magazine in 2022. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”

And while he tried his best during this time to hide the signs of his addiction from his co-stars, they knew he was struggling and did everything they could to help him.

“[They] were understanding, and they were patient,” Perry said of his castmates, Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer.

He continued, “It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”

A year after Perry opened up about his addiction in the interview with Sawyer, the actor was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home.

It was later revealed in the autopsy report that he died from an overdose of the anesthetic hallucinogen ketamine.

At the time, Perry had been receiving ketamine treatments to help manage his depression and anxiety. However, the authorities determined that the levels found in his body were not within the recommended dosage and that he had obtained additional quantities recreationally.

His personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and a friend, Erik Fleming, were later identified as accomplices in his death.

Two doctors, Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, as well as a drug dealer, Jasveen Sangha, infamously known as the “Ketamine Queen,” were also arrested in connection with Perry’s death.

Following Perry’s death, the authorities charged the suspects, with all but one choosing to agree to a plea deal.

Chavez and Iwamasa agreed to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, while Plasencia pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution.

Fleming also agreed to a plea deal, although the details remain unclear.

Meanwhile, Jasveen Sangha, infamously known as the “Ketamine Queen,” has yet to reach any agreement with authorities.

Unlike the other suspects, Sangha pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.

These charges include seven ketamine-related counts, one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

She is expected to go to trial in September, after it was previously scheduled for August, and could face up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.