Lauren Graham Shares About Last Birthday Gift Matthew Perry Gave To Her

Lauren Graham is reflecting on her meaningful relationship with the late Friends star Matthew Perry.

While on her Have I Told You This Already? book tour the Gilmore Girls star told the audience at her Friday, April 5 stop, that it’s “still really hard to believe” that Perry passed away in 2023.

“While he was not technically ever a boyfriend, he was an almost in my life,” Graham told the audience according to PEOPLE, adding that Perry was also “a friend and a constant.”

“We would stretch for a year, then he would come back in my life, and he had just come back in my life last year,” she added.

Prior to the actor’s death, Graham said he gave her “a pickleball set” for her birthday, which would end up being the last gift she received from Perry.

“He’s like really into tennis and pickleball,” Graham told the audience, using present tense while discussing her departed friend. She added that Perry also gave her a card that said: “Be older.”

Perry died at his home in Los Angeles on October 28, 2023. He died as a result of “acute effects of ketamine” according to an autopsy report, which had also found that “drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of an opioid” contributed to his death.

After his passing, fans, celebrities, and those who had worked with Perry all shared touching tributes honoring the late actor, including Friends stars Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston.

One month after Perry’s death, Graham appeared on CBS Mornings, saying “no one made me laugh as hard” as Perry did.

“Just tears, streaming,” she recalled at the time. “There was just such joy in being around him and being his friend.”