Matthew Perry’s ex-girlfriend and former assistant has opened up about the star's drug addiction and how she used to message him asking if he was still alive.

In an exclusive interview with The Mirror US, Kayti Edwards says she stopped working with the star in 2011 as she couldn't watch him die.

She explained: "Matthew paid me very well as his assistant but there came a point for me that he got so bad that I had no choice but to walk away from that salary. But I knew that I could not watch him die. I would never, ever be able to live with myself.”

She added: "There were so many sleepless nights that I would go home and I would wake up at four in the morning texting him, 'Are you alive? Are you alive? Just answer. Send me an emoji. Send me something that you are there.'

"I couldn't sleep at night knowing what he was doing. And I think part of me stayed as long as I did, because if I didn't stay, he would have been alone, and he would have just kept going."

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Matthew had one last wish he never got to (
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Getty Images Europe)

Eventually, she managed to persuade him to go to rehab in January 2011. She explained: "I said, 'I'm not doing this anymore, Matthew, I am sorry you were going to hate me, but we are getting you in a rehab.'"

Kayti dated the Friends star in 2006 before going to work as his assistant in 2011. They remained friends right up until his death aged 54, in October 2023.

Kayti Edwards had opened up to the Mirror about her friend's death (
Image:
David Buchan for the Daily Mirror)

It comes as Kayti says the actor had a massive network of dodgy doctors and nurses illegally supplying him drugs for more than a decade.

She adds: “There’s a whole network of people beyond those facing criminal charges who the police need to investigate. Detectives need only delve back into his medical history. There are so many more doctors who have been on his books over the years who will be terrified right now. Whenever he was in active addiction, he knew instantly where to turn. It’s a scandal.”

Matthew Perry died in October 2023 (
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getty)

She was speaking out after Perry's live-in assistant, two doctors and a woman dubbed "the ketamine queen" were among five people charged following an investigation into the actor's death. But Kayti, who is the step-granddaughter of British actress Julie Andrews, said that his links to doctors go back years, although his choice of drugs had changed.

“Ketamine was his new thing, but it all started with unscrupulous doctors oversubscribing prescription pills like Vicodin,” she says “When the charges dropped, I knew they would be doctors…..because that was what he always did. I was not surprised. His addictive brain would think, ‘well, it was prescribed from a doctor so I can take it.’ In his head, it wasn't like he was out on the street, scoring drugs.”

She also says there are serious questions as to why no drugs or paraphernalia were found at the scene. "If you have given him a big shot, there would be a needle and evidence of ketamine in the house. Where did it all go?

"Why did the assistant shoot him up with all those drugs and leave," she says. "I always stayed with Matthew if he was taking drugs as I didn’t want him to OD , or anything to happen. I could call 911. But why wasn’t his assistant there."

Tributes to Matthew Perry pile up outside the Los Angeles home after his tragic death (
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BACKGRID)

Investigators told how doctor Salvador Plasencia conspired with fellow medic Mark Chavez to supply the actor with large amounts of ketamine, writing in a message: "I wonder how much this moron will pay" and "let's find out".

His assistant Kenneth Iwamasa has already pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine causing death - admitting to "repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training".

Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine causing death, while Chavez, 54, has plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine

Plasencia, who is charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two charges related to allegations he falsified documents during the investigation into Perry's death, pleaded not guilty.

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