Actor Matthew Perry has died aged 54 after being found dead in his hot tub. The Friends legend – who fought a decades-long battle with addiction – was found unconscious in his Los Angeles home yesterday. Emergency responders received a call at 4:07 p.m that the star had suffered a cardiac arrest and arrived to find the star dead in his hot tub.

According to TMZ claims, he had just arrived back from playing a round of pickleball (a mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping-pong) and had sent his assistant out on an errand. It is that same aide who is said to have found the star unresponsive when he returned home just two hours later.

Tributes have been pouring in for the beloved star, whose passing has no doubt rocked his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt Le Blanc and Lisa Kudrow to their core. Their friendships span more than 30 years, with many having first met as budding actors living in Los Angeles.

That was the case for Matthew and Jennifer, whose paths had already crossed three years before Friends. And from the moment he met her, Matthew admitted he was smitten. “I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and liked her, and I got the sense she was intrigued too – maybe it was going to be something,” he wrote in his recent autobiography, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

And when he landed the Friends gig, Jen was the first person he called – although he quickly realised his eagerness had been a mistake. “I could feel ice forming through the phone,” he wrote. “Looking back, it was clear that this made her think I liked her too much or in the wrong kind of way.”

But instead of slinking away embarrassed, Matthew went all in and continued to ask her for a date. “I only compounded the error by then asking her out,” he continued. “[Jennifer] declined (which made it very difficult to actually go out with her), but said that she’d love to be friends with me, and I compounded the compound by blurting, ‘We can’t be friends!'”

The two actors later sat down for their first Friends table read in 1994 and unfortunately for Matt, his feelings continued to linger once filming started, making their conversations ‘awkward’ as he ‘crushed badly’ on his co-star. “I’d ask myself, how long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?”

But by the time Jennifer started dating Brad Pitt in 1998, Matthew said he had “long since gotten over” her and was able to speak to her normally. He said that the success of the show coupled with her ‘deafening lack of interest’ eventually cured him and they became lasting friends.

Meanwhile, he also revealed that it was Jennifer who confronted him about his drinking while filming Friends, something he was eternally grateful for as it forced him to face the situation, a move that undoubtedly saved his life.

The actor, who once ‘nearly’ died from heavy drug use, said his co-star asked him outright about his scary drug and alcohol use at the height of his career and praised her for being a good friend. Matthew recalled how Jennifer told him: “We know youre drinking”.

“Imagine how scary a moment that was,” he said. “She was the one who reached out the most, you know. I’m really grateful to her for that.”