‘Sex and the City’ Star Reflects on Her Unforgettable But Ultimately Sad Date with Matthew Perry

Kristin Davis recently opened up about a memorable, and ultimately heartbreaking, experience with the late Matthew Perry. The “And Just Like That…” star, 60, shared the story on her podcast, Are You a Charlotte?, saying that a lawyer friend once set her up with Perry at a quiet dinner party in the late 1990s. Perry, of course, was famous for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004.

“So I go to this dinner party, I bring my little flowers,” Davis recalled to guest Brian Van Holt. “You know, it’s a bunch of Hollywood people. I don’t even know who all was there other than this lawyer and Matthew.”

She didn’t give an exact date for the meeting, but said it happened between her time on Melrose Place in the mid-90s and her start on Sex and the City in 1998.

Davis described the dinner as a small, low-key gathering, but she immediately noticed how happy Perry was. “He sits next to me, and he’s talking about how thrilled he is, how happy they are on the set at ‘Friends,’” she said.

“I was like, ‘Wow, he’s so happy.’” For Davis, seeing Perry’s joy was striking because her own experience on Melrose Place had been far less cheerful. “It was stressy. There were 15 series regulars. Everyone had the feeling they might get cut. It was kind of competitive and stressy,” she said. “So I was like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing, you’re so happy.’”

Though the two never became romantically involved, Davis said Perry left a lasting impression. The date was bittersweet in hindsight because Perry passed away in 2023 at the age of 54, found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles-area home.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his death accidental due to the acute effects of ketamine. Additional factors included the effects of buprenorphine, drowning, and coronary artery disease. At the time, Perry had been undergoing ketamine-assisted therapy for anxiety, but officials confirmed the treatment could not have caused his death.

Following Perry’s death, his funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles on November 3, 2023. His family attended, along with his five Friends co-stars. During the service, the Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song Don’t Give Up was played, a song Perry cherished and referenced in his signed autobiographies to help people struggling with depression and addiction.

After his death, the Matthew Perry Foundation was established through the National Philanthropic Trust to support people battling addiction.

In May 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death. On August 15, 2024, five people, including his personal assistant, two doctors, and two drug dealers, were charged in connection to the distribution of the drug that led to Perry’s overdose and another person’s death.

Davis’s memory of that dinner date remains poignant. The heartbreak comes not from any romantic disappointment, but from remembering a kind, joyful man who was struggling privately, yet left such a warm impression in the lives of those who met him.

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