The Tragic Loss Matthew Perry Never Got Over

In "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," Matthew Perry spoke openly about his relationship with Jamie Tarses, who he said was, at one point, his "sort-of girlfriend." The Hollywood powerhouses met in 1994, just shortly before Perry scored his life-changing role as Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom, "Friends." Tarses had been a major part of the development of the series. The pair allegedly began dating two years later in 1996. At the time, Tarses had become the president of ABC after years of working on various TV series with NBC. 

Throughout his life, Perry struggled with overcoming his addictions, and in his book, he gave Tarses credit for helping him through a particularly difficult time. He wrote that this also had a lot to do with why their romance ultimately ended. Perry said that he broke up with Tarses, telling her, "I need time to process being sober." With a bit of his classic sarcasm, Perry explained, "In order to adequately pay sweet Jamie back for two years of giving up huge portions of her own very busy and important life by basically being my nurse, I ended our relationship." It's easy to see that Perry had some regrets about the way his relationship ended with the person who he called "the most magical, beautiful, and smart" woman.