After dating for six months, the pair broke up in 1996. Due to his personal difficulties with addiction and feelings of not being “enough” for Julia Roberts, Matthew Perry claimed to have broken up with the “beautiful and brilliant” actress.
On October 28, in Los Angeles, Matthew Perry, the actor best known for portraying Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, passed away at the age of 54. The initial responders were unable to rouse him from unconsciousness when they discovered him in a hot tub. But Julia Roberts, a famous Hollywood actress, who was once his lover, also happens to be celebrating her birthday on the same day. According to his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” the ex-couple began dating while they were filming “Friends” in the middle of the 1990s.
Before Julia Roberts made a guest appearance in season two of the program, she became acquainted with Matthew Perry. According to Mr. Perry’s book, Ms. Roberts informed the producers of “Friends” that she would only guest star if she would be a part of Chandler Bing’s plot. This resulted in Mr. Perry delivering to her “three dozen red roses and the card read, ‘The only thing more exciting than the prospect of you doing the show is that I finally have an excuse to send you flowers.'”
They had corresponded by fax in 1995, before they had ever met in person, during the early stages of their relationship. Despite their hectic schedules, the actor disclosed that they used to send “hundreds” of faxes every day. “The actor from The Odd Couple called Ms. Roberts’ messages “smart” and said they gave him the impression that “she was placed on this planet to make the world smile”.
A three-month courtship via daily faxes was thus initiated. We conducted all of our business via fax back then, before the internet and cell phones. And there were lots of them, hundreds, Mr. Perry wrote, adding that “I used to sit by my fax machine three or four times a day and watch the piece of paper slowly revealing her next missive.” “The way she strung sentences together, the way she saw the world, the way she articulated her unique thoughts, all was so captivating,” said the actor.
The faxes “veered romantic” soon after, leading to “five-hour” phone conversations before the couple had ever met in person. “We could not be stopped after that: five-hour conversations here, four-hour conversations there,” Mr. Perry wrote. I couldn’t tell what we were falling into, but we were falling.”
“I couldn’t handle dating Julia Roberts. “I was always positive that we would end our relationship,” Mr. Perry wrote. He continued by saying that he thought Ms. Roberts was “slumming it” by becoming his date. “Why wouldn’t she? I was broken, twisted, and unlovable; I could never be enough. I broke up with the stunning and intelligent Julia Roberts as a result, rather than going through the inevitable pain of losing her,” Mr. Perry continued.