Matthew Perry’s sisters react after learning assistant's disturbing role in overdose
Topics: Matthew Perry, Friends, Crime, Celebrity
Ben Williams
Featured Image Credit: (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Topics: Matthew Perry, Friends, Crime, Celebrity
Matthew Perry’s sisters have spoken out in devastating victim impact statements ahead of the sentencing of his former personal assistant.
The Friends actor died in October 2023 at the age of 54, after he was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home.
His cause of death was later determined to be ‘acute effects of ketamine’, with a number of people going on to be charged in connection with the case.
Perry, who was best known for playing Chandler Bing in the beloved TV sitcom, had previously been open about his struggles with addiction. Now, like his mother, Suzanne Morrison — Perry’s sisters, Caitlin and Madeline Morrison, have shared their heartbreak after learning more about the role they say Kenneth Iwamasa played in the events surrounding his death.
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Iwamasa has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, causing death.
According to the Department of Justice, he had ‘repeatedly’ injected Perry with ketamine ‘without medical training’, including on the day the actor died.
In court filings submitted ahead of Iwamasa’s sentencing, Madeline described the pain of realising what had allegedly happened inside Perry’s Pacific Palisades home.
Reported by People, she wrote: “In many ways, it felt like my brother died all over again. Everything I believed about the day he died—everything Kenny told us—was a lie.”
“The idea that someone my brother considered family could betray him in such an unimaginable way is something I never could have conceived.”
Madeline went on to recall how she and her sister went to choose clothes for Perry to be buried in days after his death, describing it as ‘one of the most surreal and heartbreaking’ experiences of her life.
She claimed: “I remember how manic and unsettled Kenny seemed. He repeatedly volunteered his version of events without being asked, as if he were being interviewed rather than mourning a friend."
She added: “In reality…he was trying to distract us from the truth: that he had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him in a hot tub to die.”
Madeline also said Iwamasa’s presence at Perry’s funeral was something the family still struggled to process.
She wrote: “Kenny even spoke at Matthew’s funeral.”
“The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most. That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn’t just take my brother’s life—he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye."
Caitlin also issued a separate statement, saying she has ‘no sympathy’ for Iwamasa.
She wrote: “I cannot read Kenny’s thoughts.”
“I will never know if the lethal dose of ketamine was only lethal by accident. But I know that when Kenny left the house, he was doing one of two things.”
“He was either escaping from something he knew he had done or he was willfully abandoning a vulnerable person in a dangerous situation.”
Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, also submitted a victim impact statement, saying Iwamasa’s main responsibility had been to help keep her son drug-free.
Iwamasa faces up to 15 years in prison, similar to that of ‘Ketamine Queen’ Jasveen Sangha — who provided Perry with 50 vials of the dissociative anesthetic before his death. Although, prosecutors have recommended 41 months in prison plus three years of supervised release.