Matthew Perry was ‘happy and vibrant’ the day prior to his death, friend says

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — The day before he died, Matthew Perry was photographed having a meal with a friend who is now speaking out about their get together.

Athenna Crosby has gone public to confirm that she was the woman seen having lunch with Perry at the Hotel Bel-Air the day before he died at the age of 54.

Crosby took to social media to share a statement, writing on her Instagram stories Wednesday, “I wasn’t going to speak about this but what I will say is I had the honor of knowing Matthew personally.”

“I am so devastated from his death but felt it was in poor taste to talk about it publicly as the attention should not be on me but rather on him and his legacy and he was an extremely private person and I always respected that in our friendship,” she wrote along with a black and white photo of Perry. “But indeed, we were friends and I was one of the last people to speak to him and see him before he passed.”

On another post with a photo of her at their lunch as seen on TMZ, Crosby reiterated that she had not intended to speak about Perry, but did so since she was identified. She also asked people not to speculate about his death and shared what she said was his state of mind during their meeting.

“I want to emphasize that Matthew was in extremely good spirits and talked to me enthusiastically about the things he had coming up in his life,” Crosby wrote. “He was so happy and vibrant.”

“Know that man was on a comeback and truly deserved more time on this earth,” Crosby added. “Our entertainment industry has truly lost a legend. RIP.”

Also on her Instagram stories, Crosby posted a series of videos and said she really wants to “pivot the conversation” toward his grieving friends and family members.

Crosby, 25, told TMZ that she was not romantically involved with Perry, whom she said she met via a mutual friend a few months ago.

She also talked to “Entertainment Tonight” and said Perry was “doing great” and “cracking jokes the whole time” while they were together. Crosby said the actor discussed with her who he would want to play him in a biopic he was planning based on his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.”

“He said that he wanted to make a movie about his life,” she told ET. “And he had worked with Zac Efron in the past on a movie, and he said that he wanted Zac Efron to play him as a younger version [of himself] and that he was gonna ask him soon to do that. He was just looking forward to sharing more about his story and his recovery from addiction, and really championing that cause to help more people, so he was so optimistic and happy about everything that he wanted to do.”

Perry and Efron starred together in the 2009 comedy “17 Again” in which Efron played the younger version of Perry’s character.

CNN has reached out to representatives for both Crosby and Efron for comment.

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