David Bowick, Matthew Perry’s brother-in-law, offered a rare public tribute as a Netflix documentary on the late Friends star nears release, and as family grief stays close to home.
Bowick posted on Facebook on Saturday about the three-part Netflix series “The One About Matthew Perry,” set to premiere Tuesday. He said he appears only briefly. His wife, Mia Perry Bowick, the actor’s sister, is in it far more.
Page Six reported that Bowick, a musician who was asked to write music for the project, framed the post as personal, not promotional. He has largely stayed quiet about Perry in public. That choice made the note stand out.
Perry, best known as Chandler Bing on the long-running sitcom Friends and for films such as Fools Rush In, was found dead in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023. He was 54.
In the Facebook post, Bowick described the man the public thought it knew, and the relative he actually knew.
"I’ve never really talked much about Matthew publicly. He was someone the whole world felt like they knew, but to me, he was just my brother. He always started our interactions with ‘Hey, brother’ and I always loved that."
He also shared a wedding photo from August 2023, when he married Mia. In the image, the newlyweds stood with Perry and with Bowick’s sister Zoe. Zoe died last month at 46.
"Now they’re both gone. It’s a strange thing to watch the world remember someone while you’re still trying to figure out how to live without the people you remember them with."
Bowick said contributing music “meant a lot to be able to contribute a small piece to telling [Perry’s] story.” He closed without a speech.
"I don’t have anything particularly profound to say. I just wanted to share this picture of two people I wish were still here. I miss you both so much."
The coroner said Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” along with drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine. In 2024, federal prosecutors charged five people with conspiracy and distribution of ketamine in connection with his death.
Three of those defendants pleaded guilty: Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, drug counselor Erik Fleming, and Dr. Mark Chavez. The case put a hard light on how the drug reached a star who had long spoken about addiction and recovery.
Netflix’s series arrives while that legal fallout is still part of the public record. Bowick’s post did not litigate the case. It put names and faces back where they belong, with the people who sat at the wedding table and now live with empty chairs.
Hollywood will package the memory. The people who heard “Hey, brother” still have to live without the man who said it.
