MATTHEW PERRY’S ex-girlfriend fears he suffered a drugs relapse before he died — and has laid bare his demons.
Kayti Edwards says the actor’s use of his alter ego “Mattman” in a social media post in the days leading to the tragedy was a clear sign to her that he could have been high.
Kayti, 47, dated the Friends star in 2006, worked as his assistant in 2011 and remained close to him.
He was found unresponsive in the Jacuzzi at his LA home last month in an apparent drowning.
Initial toxicology reports found there was no meth or fentanyl in his system, though his cause of death remains unconfirmed while more detailed testing is carried out.
But in an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, Kayti said all the tell-tale signs of a prescription-pill relapse were there in the lead- up to his death at 54 on October 28.
Various prescription medications were reportedly found at his home, including drugs for depression, anxiety and COPD, a common lung disease causing breathing problems.
No illegal substances were found.
Former model Kayti, the step-granddaughter of British Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews, claims the apparent absence of any prescription opioid painkillers — such as the Vicodin Matthew once swallowed at a rate of 55 a DAY — does not mean he had not taken meds of that kind.
She said: “There are a lot of things that aren’t adding up for me.
“I don’t believe he just drowned in his Jacuzzi, that doesn’t sound right.
“I know Matthew and I know that he wouldn’t have just drowned.
“I think he might have taken pills in the week leading up to this.
“They said there were no prescription painkillers at the scene, which doesn’t surprise me, because he didn’t leave drugs lying around.
“He was paranoid and would take them all, so there wasn’t any evidence, and then go out for more when he was ready to.”
A friend who met with Matthew the day before he died said that he seemed “100 per cent sober” and “extremely positive”.
But mother-of-four Kayti, who runs a horse rescue centre, says she spotted red flags that all was not well with Matthew in the days before his death.
The actor, who shot to fame playing Chandler Bing in smash-hit US TV comedy series Friends, had been posting much more than usual on social media, which she says was out of character.
His final post, five days before his death, showed him in the Jacuzzi and was signed “Mattman”, his alter ego based on his obsession with comic book character Batman.
Kayti said: “That Mattman thing was not something he did when he was sober.
“Mattman would come out when he was not sober and he felt kind of invincible.
“I was around when he was getting high, although I was not getting high with him, and when I would say maybe he should cool it a little bit with the drugs, he would say, ‘No, I’m Mattman’.”
Kayti — who last spoke with the star last year after he published his memoir Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing — also claims he had a tendency to want to be in water when he was high.
She added: “One time, his neighbour in Hollywood Hills found Matthew naked and high in his swimming pool.
“I had to go over there and get him out of his neighbour’s pool. He had a thing with water when he was doing drugs.
“He always wanted to be in the pool or the Jacuzzi.”
The actor had been open about his decades-long struggle with alcohol and drug addictions.
It could take months for further tests to establish exactly how he died at his $6million pad in the Pacific Palisades area.
Matthew’s Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer joined family and other mourners at his funeral on November 3.
He was laid to rest in a cemetery next to the Warner Brothers’ LA studios, where the world-famous sitcom was filmed.
Matthew was found by an assistant, who had left him alone at the house to run some errands.
Kayti said that was also part of the actor’s drug routine, explaining: “When he got high, he was always alone.”
Kayti said Matthew was at the peak of his addiction when she worked for him and he would send her to pick up drugs, including heroin and crack, while she was pregnant.
She has previously told how he was so desperate to beat his addiction, he once super-glued his hands to his legs to stop himself from getting high.
Matthew and Kayti dated for several months in 2006 after meeting through her grandfather Blake Edwards, the Hollywood director of the original Pink Panther movies.
She said: “He was a friend of my grandfather’s. I met him at my grandfather’s house. They were hanging out by the pool.
“They were talking about working together and that was the first time I met him.
“Six months later, I ran into him at an AA meeting and reminded him we’d met at my grandfather’s house. That’s how it started.”
She revealed she was left terrified by his drug taking, explaining: “I would go home and pray, ‘Please don’t let him die’.
“When he called the next morning, I would think, ‘Thank God, he’s alive’.
“It was an awful feeling for me to leave my friend in that state, wondering if he was going to die.
“When I heard that he had passed, I was sad that I didn’t get to say goodbye.
“That’s what kills me the most, that I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
Kayti says that Matthew had a strong fear of death and was “strategic” about how he took drugs, but could not stay sober for long periods.
“He battled with something very deep,” she added. “It didn’t seem to be his childhood.
“He had a good childhood, his parents loved him, he had great siblings.
“I think there was something underneath, which he battled with and took to his grave.
