Matthew Perry’s Stepfather Keith Morrison on Star’s Final Days & How His Mom Is Coping

Matthew Perry’s stepfather Keith Morrison is speaking out about the tragic loss of America’s “Friend.”

On a new episode of Hoda Kotb’s “Making Spaces” podcast, Morrison opens up about Matthew’s final days and how his mother Suzanne is coping with the loss.

Matthew died in October with dangerous levels of Ketamine in his system, but by all accounts he was happy in the days and weeks before.

It has been a little more than four months since he passed away, and Keith’s pain is still understandably raw.

He shared, “As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn't go away. It's with you every day. It's with you all the time.”

The “Dateline” host married Matthew’s mother Suzanne in 1981, when Matthew was just 10 years old.

“It's not easy, especially for his mom.” Morrison said. “Toward the end of his life, they were closer than I've seen them for decades and texting each other constantly.”

He went on, “He was happy and he said so, 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. As he said himself, ‘If I suddenly died, people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised,’ and he was right, I think.”

Hoda asked, “Did it surprise you?”

Keith replied, “It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might. So, yes and no, I guess, is the answer to that.”

She also asked, “Do you still feel his presence? Do you sense him?”

Morrison answered, “He was goofy, he was funny, he was acerbic, but even if he didn't say a word, he was the center of attention. So, yes, I mean, that's gone, but you still feel the echo of it everywhere.”

Perry was open about his past battles with addiction, and Keith shared, “As he put it himself in his book and in the talks that he had about his book, it is a disease and it's a very, very difficult one to beat. He felt like he was beating it, but you never beat it and he knew that, too.”

Following his death, family and friends have started a foundation in Perry’s name.

Keith said, “The goal is to do whatever can be done to help organizations, the rescue people in difficult situations and get them some help.”

To learn more, go to MatthewPerryFoundation.org.