Matthew Perry’s Stepdad Keith Morrison Speaks Out About Actor’s Death: ‘It Doesn’t Go Away Yet’

Keith Morrison revealed he’s having trouble getting over stepson Matthew Perry’s death months after the Friends star was found dead in his Pacific Palisades home in October 2023.

“It’s as other people have told me hundreds of times; it doesn’t go away yet,” Keith, 76, told Hoda Kotb during the Wednesday, March 13, episode of her podcast, “Making Space.”

The longtime Dateline correspondent continued, “It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time, and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and it’s not easy.”

Keith also went on to add that while Matthew’s mom, Susan Langford Perry, wasn’t having an “easy” time with her son’s death, she and Matthew had grown close in the time leading up to his death.

“I don’t think I’m giving away too much if I say that toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades,” Keith explained on the podcast. “[They were] texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”

“He was happy, and he said so,” Keith continued. “And he hadn’t said that for a long time. It’s a source of comfort, but also, he didn’t get to have his third act, and that’s not fair. And as he said himself, ‘If if I suddenly died, people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised.’ And he was right.”

Hoda, 59, asked Keith if he was surprised to learn of Matthew’s death, and he admitted “yes and no.”

“It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might,” he said.

Matthew was discovered in his jacuzzi unresponsive on October 28, 2023, and initial reports said that the cause of death was from accidental drowning. However, The Whole 9 Yards star’s death was later ruled as the acute effects of ketamine, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner. The cause of death had been previously deferred by the medical examiner on October 29, 2023, pending further toxicology results.

While the beloved actor had been undergoing ketamine infusion treatments for anxiety and depression, TMZ stated that his death “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.” On January 9, People reported that the Los Angeles Police Department “have determined they would no longer be looking into [Matthew’s] death.”