Matthew Perry’s ex-partner and former assistant Kayti Edwards has opened up in a wide-ranging interview as she also called on his network of dodgy doctors to be smashed by cops

Matthew Perry’s ex-girlfriend and former assistant has urged cops to widen their probe into the actor’s death as she opened up about the star’s drug addiction.

Kayti Edwards, 47, says the actor had a massive network of dodgy doctors and nurses illegally supplying him drugs for more than a decade. In an exclusive interview with The Mirror US, Kayti even says how the actor once chillingly told her: “I’m in with the doctors.”

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.”

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. 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 remembers being shocked by the sheer quantity of drugs he was consuming, when she worked for him. “I used to say to him ‘how is it possible for someone to even get 50 to 60 Vicodin a day’ and he told me ‘I have an in with the doctors’. That was back in 2011 and continued up until his death” she says.

“He even had a nurse from the doctor’s office bring him his Vicodin. I saw her as she used to literally deliver it to his door in return for envelopes of cash.” 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”. Kayti says how it was “awful” to hear the way they talked about him, and was aghast that his current assistant would keep “feeding and feeding him drugs.”

“It was just horrific that there was no duty of care,” she says. “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,” she says.

“But I knew that I could not watch him die. I would never, ever be able to live with myself.” Everyday was a constant struggle as he addiction spiraled out of control

“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.”

Eventually she managed to persuade him to go to rehab in January, 2011. “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,” she said.

Kayti says she is deeply troubled by the circumstances around Perry’ death. It was revealed last week how Perry was allegedly injected at least 21 times with drugs in the last week of his life. But she says how her former boss was always terrified of needles – and even warned that he would never inject because it could be fatal.

“This is the weird thing to me… Matthew always, always told me that he would never, ever, use needles or inject anything into his body. He didn’t even want to have tattoos,” she says. “I would often see him very high and using lots of different drugs. I would always get so scared, and tell him that he had to stop mixing all this stuff, saying ‘you’re gonna die’.

“But he was like…’you only die when you use needles…and I would never, ever, ever do that. When I heard that he let his assistant do it, I just couldn’t understand, especially as he had no medical training.”

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.” Incredibly, she says that Perry would feel nothing but sympathy for those that are charged.

“I think that he would take the rap and say it was me who got them in this sticky situation,” she says. “And this is what my addiction does. I think that he would stick up for them. I think that Matthew would feel bad for what was going on – that his addiction would put other people in this situation. He would take the blame and say ‘this is my fault’. “

She says the medical staff were often swayed by the huge money at Perry’s disposal. As wise-cracking Chandler Bing in Friends, he made £780,000 an episode. He revealed in his memoir how he spent over £7million trying to get sober, including 15 trips to rehab.

Kayti says: “They said that he was paying $5,000 for a $12 vial of ketamine. But that was nothing to him. The medical staff would be thinking how easy it is to make money, and just over and over-prescribe.” Perry was not the only celebrity getting drugs illegally from doctors. In fact, Kayti says it’s very much an open secret in Hollywood.

“I remember my friend and I going to another celebrity’s house and they had a whole medical room in his house, with IVs and vials and meds. Matthew certainly wasn’t the only one. I just hope that all this proves a big wake-up call for the industry as the doctors think they are invincible.”

Looking back she believes his break-up with girlfriend, Rachel Dunn, who he dated from 2003 to 2005 was a “big, big regret for him” and sparked his descent into addiction. In his memoir, he described her as “the ex-girlfriend of his dream” and she was even named in his will. Kayti says: “He loved her so much…she was his one and only girl. I I don’t know what happened and why they broke up, but I know that he was the happiest with her.

“Afterwards, he lived with a lot of regret. Their love was very simple….and she loved him before he was huge and he just spiraled afterwards.”

She believes that not getting married to Rachel was something that played on his mind.

“I think that he regrets not marrying her….I know that he wanted kids, and I think that he struggled with time flying by. He hadn’t tackled some milestones that he wanted to,” she says. If you go back to when they dated, you could see, just in pictures of his face of how content and happy he was. But it all started spiraling after his breakup with her. And they say everybody has a kind of trigger or turning point in their addiction where you just didn’t care anymore? And I’m pretty sure that breakup kind of started it.”

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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Source: USA Today