Matthew Perry — who died at age 54 on Friday October 27 — was very candid about his personal relationships in his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, including his very private ex-girlfriend, Fleischman Is In Trouble actress Lizzy Caplan, whom he was with for six years.
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The Chandler Bing actor admitted that he considered proposing to his long-term partner – whom he never mentioned by name – and he was hurt by the way she chose to deliver the news that she had got engaged to her now-husband, British actor Tom Riley, following their split.
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She announced the news to Matthew via email, which he described as "incredibly harsh," after he tried to see her during a stay in London for his West End play, The End of Longing. He described the theatre production as a "huge success" but Lizzy was "too busy" to attend.
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"There was one person who wouldn't come to the play, even though I begged," he penned. "The woman I'd dated for six years was, by now, dating a British guy, and they were spending half the year in London, the rest in Los Angeles."
© Photo: Getty ImagesMatthew's ex Lizzy Caplan announced she was marrying her husband Tom via email
After she said she couldn't meet him, he added: "I replied saying I was a little hurt that she couldn't make it…and then a while later I got an email telling me that she was getting married and that she had no room in her life for friends.
"It was an incredibly harsh way to reveal the news that she was getting married, and not something that I would ever do to a person, but there you have it. I'm glad she got married and that she's happy. I want nothing but the best for her, forever."
Matthew embodied his Friends character Chandler Bing when he almost proposed to Lizzy
The former couple met at Lizzy's 23rd birthday party which Matthew, then 36, had crashed. What began as a very casual relationship "morphed into love", and four years later he organised a romantic proposal for the Mean Girls actress, including a custom painting of the couple which he'd commissioned as a Christmas present.
"My plan was to give her the painting and then ask the question… well, I never asked it. I gave her the present and she was really moved by it, saying, 'Matty, my little heart – what you're doing to my little heart.'
"And it was time, all I had to do was say, 'Honey, I love you. Will you…' But I didn't say it. All my fears reared up like a snake," Matthew said. "I immediately went into Chandler [expletive] Bing mode. 'Hey, hey, hey!' I said to her consternation, 'look at this!'"
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