Matthew Perry’s death is what Jennifer Aniston ‘dreaded’ for 20 years

Rachel was missing Chandler. 

Jennifer Aniston, 54, paid respects to her “Friends” co-star Matthew Perry, who died unexpectedly on Oct. 28 at age 54 of an apparent drowning. 

According to The Daily Mail, she was one of the “first to arrive” at his funeral, and “kept to herself” during the private ceremony, which took place on Friday.

Aniston and the rest of her former cast mates, including Lisa Kudrow, 60, Courteney Cox, 59, and David Schwimmer, 57 — all dressed in black — were seen arriving as a group outside. Matt LeBlanc, 56, was also later seen with the group.

Bodyguards for Aniston had been seen driving from her LA home and arriving at the venue before the gathering.

Perry’s father, John Bennett Perry, 82, and “Dateline” journalist stepfather, Keith Morrison, 76, were also in attendance, along with Perry’s mother, Suzanne. 

Entertainment lawyer Tre Lovell told The Post that since Perry’s parents are still alive and he had no wife or kids, they will most likely inherit the bulk of his fortune, unless Perry designated that the money go to charity. Perry was an advocate for helping others with addiction recovery, since he was open about his own life long struggles with addiction. 

Aniston and Perry were the youngest among the core six cast members, when “Friends” began in 1994. 

“I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and liked her,” Perry shared in his 2022 memoir. “And I got the sense she was intrigued too — maybe it was going to be something.”

She turned him down when he asked her out, but the two stayed close. 

Perry joked in his book that his crush on her wore off, thanks to her “deafening lack of interest.” But they shared a close friendship, since Perry revealed that it was Aniston who “reached out the most” amid his years-long drug and alcohol addiction.

Among the five other “Friends,” Aniston was also the co-star who confronted him about his drinking on the set. 

“I’m really grateful to her for that,” he told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer while promoting his memoir in October 2022.

In 2004, ahead of the series finale of “Friends” — after 10 years of working together, Aniston broke down in tears discussing Perry during a sit-down with Sawyer. At the time, she was asked what each castmate “didn’t know” about themselves.

“That he’s all right,” she said of what she hoped he knew about himself.

“He struggled,” Aniston shared. “We didn’t know. We weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that. And the idea of even losing him … he’s having a road. But he’s all right.”

A source told The Daily Mail that his death has been extra hard on Aniston.

“Nobody shed more tears for Matthew during the darkest points of his struggles with addiction than Jennifer,” they said, adding that she “genuinely thought his worst days were behind him. So his death just two years later comes as a bitter body blow for Jennifer.” 

Perry’s cause of death has been “deferred,” so it’s unknown if he had a relapse, even though Athenna Crosby — one of the last friends to see him just 24 hours before his death — swore that he didn’t.  

“It doesn’t matter whether he died as a result of a freak accident, or whether it was directly connected to his drug issues,” the source told the outlet.

“This is a day that Jennifer has dreaded coming for 20 years. She always wanted to help Matthew in any way she could…that was a constant for her.”