Gwyneth Paltrow Reflects on Past Romance With Matthew Perry in Heartfelt Tribute

Gwyneth Paltrow has shared a touching tribute to the Friends actor Matthew Perry following the news of his death Saturday afternoon.

The actress, 51, took to Instagram Sunday to share a photo of the 17 Again actor who tragically drowned at his home in Los Angeles, California. Perry was 54 years old. 

In her post, Paltrow touched on their “magical” summer together prior to the release of Friends, when they were both doing theater in Massachusetts and began a brief fling. 

“I met Matthew Perry in 1993 at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts. We were both there for most of the summer doing plays. He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be with. 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 wrote. 

Paltrow, who is currently married to Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk, went on to add that the summer she spent with Perry came just before the actor’s big break on the long-running NBC sitcom. 

“He had shot the pilot of Friends but it had not aired yet. He was nervous, hoping his big break was just around the corner. It was,” she shared. 

Although Paltrow wrote that they ultimately “drifted apart,” she was “always happy to see him” and said that she is grieving the loss of her friend. 

“I am super sad today, as so many of us are. I hope Matthew is at peace at long last. I really do,” the Oscar winner wrote. 

In his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry also touched on his brief love affair with Paltrow during the summer of 1994. 

The late actor recalled that he marked the summer prior to his major rise to fame with three big events. According to Perry, the Friends actors were advised to try and enjoy themselves as much as possible before the show was released in September 1994 as their lives were going to change dramatically after that point. 

“I filled that summer with three notable things — gambling in Vegas at the behest of director Jimmy Burrows; a trip to Mexico on my own; and a make-out session in a closet with Gwyneth Paltrow,” he shared in the book. 

“At some big party, we slipped off into a broom cupboard and made out. We were both still unknown enough that it didn’t make it to the tabloids, but with that in mind, it fell to Jimmy Burrows to give me a reality check,” Perry wrote. 

According to The Los Angeles Times, Perry — whose last post on Instagram was a photo of him inside his pool or a jacuzzi — was found dead in a hot tub.

He is survived by his mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison, and his father, John Bennett Perry.

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