Matthew Perry was hopeful about having a family before his shocking death on Saturday. The Friends star, who died at the age of 54 from an apparent drowning, admitted he “had a tremendous amount of fear” about love, but “through a lot of work,” he “got over that fear,” in a previous interview with PEOPLE. “I’m going to learn as I go,” he told the outlet. He also said he was hopeful about becoming a father someday.
“The thing that’s changed about me is I have no interest in hanging out with somebody that I don’t know or somebody that I’m not that into,” he explained in the interview, which took place while he was promoting his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. “The next person I really take seriously is somebody that I’m going to be in love with and not be scared by the things that used to scare me.”
“I’m not run by the fear I used to be run by so everything’s kind of different,” he added. “I’m feeling more confident and I’m not afraid of love anymore, so the next girl I go out with better watch out.”
Matthew, who dated many celebrity women, including Julia Roberts, over the years, went on to say he felt ready for fatherhood. “I think I’d be great. I really do,” he shared. “I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, and that’s probably why, but I can’t wait.” He also revealed why he was the one to end almost all of his relationships.
“That was me afraid,” he explained. “That is what I manifest, something that’s wrong with them. And then I break up with them. But there can’t be something wrong with everyone. I’m the common denominator. I left first because I thought they were going to annihilate me.”
Matthew was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles area home on Saturday and was pronounced dead a short time later. His official cause of death hasn’t yet been determined as toxicology reports are pending. He wasn’t known to be in a relationship at the time of his death and is survived by his parents.
