Matthew Perry’s co-star reveals the actor had ‘cheating episode’ cut from Friends amid fears that fans ‘would never forgive Chandler’

Matthew Perry’s co-star has revealed the actor had a ‘cheating episode’ cut from Friends. 

The Friends star, who played Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom was supposed to be caught up in a scandal with his on screen wife, Courteney Cox’s character Monica Geller, until he complained to the writers. 

Actress Lisa Cash, who starred as an extra in the series, has now been revealed that his character was meant to cheat on Monica during a trip to Las Vegas in a 1999 episode titled The One in Vegas: Part 1.

Lisa was hired to play a hotel worker who brings room service to Chandler’s room after he has a huge fight with Monica. 

Matthew Perry’s co-star has revealed the actor had a ‘cheating episode’ cut from Friends (Matthew Perry pictured on Friends: The Reunion in 2021)

Speaking to TMZ.com she explained: ‘The scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing In Vegas about Monica having lunch with [ex-boyfriend] Richard and in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room and orders room service and I bring it up as a hotel worker..

‘And we end up talking and laughing and connecting and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character.’

However, Matthew didn’t feel comfortable with the storyline and he went to the writers and asked for it to be changed.

Lisa added: ‘We had rehearsed it … and the day before we were supposed to shoot it in front of a live audience, I was told that [Perry] went to the writers and said the fans will never forgive [Chandler] for cheating on Monica. He was probably right. That would have possibly changed the course of the show.’

The cheating scenes were removed from the script and Lisa’s part was cut. However, she was given the chance to appear in a different scene as a flight attendant with Ross and Rachel – played by David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston.

She also praised Perry for making her feel welcome and comfortable on set and insisted the writers made the correct decision by removing Chandler’s cheating scene.

Perry famously starred as Chandler Bing in the popular sitcom, alongside Aniston as Rachel, Cox as Monica, LeBlanc as Joey, Kudrow as Phoebe and Schwimmer as Ross. 

Friends, which followed the lives of six friends in their 20s living in New York, was a smash hit across the globe when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and re-runs still remain hugely popular years later. 

Plot: The Friends star, who played Chandler Bing was supposed to be caught up in a scandal with his on screen wife, Courteney Cox’s character Monica Geller, until he complained to the writers (L-R Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller-Bing, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green in 2001)

Iconic couple: Matthew, who died aged 54 after he was found unresponsive in a hot tub on October 28, said that ‘fan’s would never have forgiven Chandler’ has the scene aired

This comes after it was revealed that there was no meth or fentanyl in Matthew Perry’s system when he drowned in a hot tub in his California home, initial toxicology reports have revealed. 

The late Friends star was found lifeless inside a hot tub outside of his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles Saturday. Throughout his life, Perry had been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol. 

The common narcotics were not found in Perry’s system during initial tests, according to a TMZ report. But more in-depth testing is underway and would show if the beloved actor had any prescription medication in his system. 

When investigators responded to Perry’s home, they did not find any illegal drugs, but found prescription medication that was properly labeled and kept in storage bottles. 

In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote that after his colon exploded in 2018, he was prescribed opiates that he deemed insufficient to deal with his pain, prompting him to turn to street dealers to supply him with potentially fentanyl-laced OxyContin. 

‘The street pills were something like $75 per pill, so I was giving the guy $3,000 at a time, many times a week,’ he wrote. 

After an initial investigation, the Los Angeles County coroner has deferred giving a cause of death, which may take weeks to determine. Those who knew him maintain that Perry was clean and sober at the time of his death. 

The megastars were all last seen together during the 2021 HBO Max reunion special hosted by James Corden (center) 

This comes after it was revealed that there was no meth or fentanyl in Matthew Perry ‘s system when he drowned in a hot tub in his California home, initial toxicology reports have revealed 

Initial toxicology tests did not show fentanyl or meth in Perry’s system, but more in-depth testing is underway. When police responded to Perry’s home (pictured) they found prescription medication that was properly labeled and stored 

Perry wrote at the beginning of his million-selling memoir: ‘Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.’ 

On Sunday, Perry’s book was ranked No. 1 on Amazon, supplanting Britney Spears’ memoir.

As he filmed the sitcom-hit Friends in the 90s, many people were unaware of the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.

‘Friends was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,’ he wrote in his memoir. ‘I had a secret and no one could know.

Perry wrote in his memoir that he had spent $9 million trying to get sober 

‘I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions.’ 

Perry wrote. ‘If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.’

He recalled in his memoir that co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about being inebriated while filming.

‘I know you’re drinking,’ he remembered her telling him once. ‘We can smell it,’ she said, in what Perry called a ‘kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.’

A fellow member of Perry’s recovery program told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview Tuesday: ‘Matty wasn’t drinking. He was a big part of our AA community. He was attending meetings, speaking at meetings and was working with a handful of newcomers.

‘He had a sponsor and was a sponsor. He seemed to be doing well.’

The insider said the actor had been focused on helping others battling addiction and had recently expressed interest in sharing his story through public speaking events.

Perry’s Friends co-stars said they were ‘devastated’ by his death and that they had been more like family than castmates

After an initial investigation, the Los Angeles County coroner has deferred giving a cause of death, which may take weeks to determine. Those who knew him maintain that Perry was clean and sober at the time of his death

‘Matty said he wanted to return to universities and speak about alcoholism. That was his gift. He could speak so well and motivate people,’ the source added.

‘It was important for him to reach the younger generation and spread his Don’t Give Up message. He really lived by those words.

‘He always made people laugh, even in meetings. But he was also spiritual, not religious, but spiritual. He walked the talk and knew this was his mission. To help other people, to give them hope.

‘Matty will forever be the definition of hope because he never, ever gave up. He turned his life around and helped countless people in the program. More than he could imagine.’

Perry recalled in his memoir that co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about being inebriated while filming.

Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that drug overdose deaths have increased more than sevenfold from 2015 to 2021.

More than 100,000 deaths a year have been linked to drug overdoses since 2020 and about two-thirds of those are related to fentanyl. The death toll is more than 10 times as many drug deaths as in 1988, at the height of the crack epidemic.

The U.S. has taken a slew of actions to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into the country. Overall, the Biden administration has imposed over 200 sanctions related to the illegal drug trade.State lawmakers nationwide are responding to the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history by pushing harsher penalties for possessing fentanyl.

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