@AthennaCrosby/Instagram/Getty
Matthew Perry’s Mystery Woman Comes Forward as Athenna Crosby: Inside Their Lunch 1 Day Before His Death
Athenna Crosby has identified herself as the woman who was photographed eating lunch with Matthew Perry on October 27, one day before he died. After photos surfaced of the two sharing a meal at Hotel Bel-Air, Athenna took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday, November 1 to share more about Matthew’s demeanor during their last meet up.
“I wasn’t going to speak about this but what I will say is I had the honor of knowing Matthew personally,” she wrote. “I am so devastated from his death but felt it was in poor taste to talk about it publicly as the attention should not be on me but rather on him and his legacy.” She added that Matthew was an “extremely private person,” which she “respected.”
“Indeed, we were friends and I was one of the last people to speak to him and see him before he passed,” she shared. “I want to emphasize that Matthew was in extremely good spirits and talked to me enthusiastically about the things that he had coming up in his life. He was so happy and vibrant. Please refrain from any speculation surrounding his death and know that the man was on a comeback and truly deserved more time on this Earth. Our entertainment industry has truly lost a legend.”
Matthew, who was 54, died after an apparent drowning in his hot tub. Initial tests performed during his autopsy revealed that there was not meth or fentanyl in his system at the time. However, an exact cause of death cannot be determined until more in-depth tests are completed, which is expected to take four to six months.
Athenna went on to say Matthew was “100 percent sober” when he died in a Thursday, November 2, interview where she gave details of their lunch date.
“In the interaction that I had with him, he was extremely positive, sober, acting normal, spoke very well, did not give me any impression that he was under drugs or alcohol of any kind,” she shared with Fox News Digital. “So, I think people are speculating that this was a relapse situation. I just want to defend him and say that it was not.”
“I am now recalling all of the details about it just because the situation has been so tragic. And I’ve been kind of thinking like, ‘OK, was there anything that I, I guess, should have noticed or was there anything that stuck out to me?’ And honestly, no, there wasn’t,” she continued. “He was so normal. He ordered a cheeseburger and had a Diet Coke and really just a normal day like any other day.”
Athenna’s Instagram reveals that she is a “TV host and entertainment journalist,” while also working as an actress, model and singer. She told TMZ that she met Matthew through mutual friends “a few months ago” and insists that their lunch meeting was not romantic.
Athenna, 25, also revealed that Matthew seemed excited about losing weight and playing pickleball when they spoke. The Friends star had picked up pickleball as a hobby before his death and was on the court playing just hours before he was found unresponsive.
“He seemed like he was in a really good place and a happy place,” his pickleball coach shared. “Pickleball, I think, was an outlet for him. It was something that he became obsessed with and that was his new healthy addiction. He loved it.”
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