It’s hard to believe that it’s already been nearly a year since the unexpected and tragic death of Matthew Perry. The beloved Friends star died on October 28, 2023 of a ketamine overdose in his Los Angeles home at the age of 54.
As the first anniversary of his passing approaches, friends, family, and fans are remembering him by taking a look back at his life and career.
In 2017, Perry went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and shared a tidbit from his childhood with the late night host. Apparently, Perry used to bully Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in elementary school.
Perry was born in the United States, but when he was a kid, his mother married NBC journalist, Keith Morrison, and spent most of his life in Canada. Perry considered himself to be “half-Canadian.” The actor went to school in Ottawa, Ontario, where he was a few grades ahead of classmate Justin, who went on to become the PM of Canada.
Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel, Perry candidly retold the story of his connection to the Prime Minister, prefacing it with the fact that it’s something that he’s “not proud of” having done. When he was in 5th grade, he and his friend used to “beat up Justin Trudeau” for “excelling in a sport” that they weren’t as good at, admitting that the motive was “pure jealousy.”
Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, a Canadian journalist, was actually press secretary to the former Canadian Prime Pinister Pierre Trudeau, who happened to be Justin’s father.
While Kimmel found the anecdote to be hilarious, Perry admitted, “I’m not bragging about this, this is terrible. I was a stupid kid.” He also confessed that they probably picked on Trudeau because he was, according to him, the “only kid in school we could beat up.” He went on: “I didn’t want to beat him up. I think at one point, I tried to turn it into love play.”
Kimmel and Perry had a laugh, with Perry speculating that perhaps the bullying was “rather instrumental” in Trudeau “going to such great heights and becoming the Prime Minister,” joking that Trudeau probably thought, “I’m going to rise above this and I’m going to become Prime Minister.”
While the memory is mostly harmless kids-will-be-kids stuff, Perry didn’t see it that way. He said: “I feel shame, I don’t want to think about it.”
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