Morgan Fairchild Just Revealed She Had Already Met Matthew Perry Years Before Filming Friends Together

Morgan Fairchild has shared a story about her connection to the late Matthew Perry that goes back much further than their time filming Friends together — and the moment she pieced it all together on set is one she clearly still treasures.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE on the red carpet at Project Angel Food’s seventh Lead with Love event at KTLA 5 Studios in Hollywood, the 76-year-old actress recalled the very first day she arrived on the Friends set and what happened almost immediately after.

Fairchild explained that she had accepted the role of Nora Bing — Chandler Bing’s glamorous mother — before the show had become the cultural phenomenon it would eventually grow into. She saw potential in the project early and trusted that instinct. What she didn’t expect was what happened the moment she stepped onto the set for the first time.

Perry, according to PEOPLE, came straight over to her with his signature high-energy enthusiasm and reminded her that the two of them had actually crossed paths years earlier. His father, actor John Bennett Perry, had held a recurring role on two shows Fairchild had worked on — Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest — and a young Matthew used to visit the set and spend time around the cast and crew. Fairchild hadn’t connected the dots until that moment, suddenly realizing that the adult actor standing in front of her was the same kid who used to hang around those earlier sets.

She described being immediately struck by Perry’s energy — warm, exuberant, and completely unguarded from the moment they reconnected.

Beyond the Friends reunion story, Fairchild also spoke about how proud she was of Perry for his decision to publicly address his long struggle with addiction. She reflected on how difficult it is in the entertainment industry to openly acknowledge personal struggles, and described his courage in doing so as something she genuinely admired. She added that she had quietly reached out to let him know she was available to talk if he ever needed it, having watched others in her own life face similar challenges with alcohol and drugs.

Perry passed away on October 28, 2023, following an accidental ketamine overdose. He had previously spoken to PEOPLE in 2022 about feeling safely sober after years of battling alcoholism and opioid addiction.

Fairchild also used the conversation to reflect on another memorable chapter from earlier in her career — her time working alongside Robin Williams on Mork & Mindy. She described Williams as a performer of almost incomprehensible natural talent, someone who would begin a scene following the script and then simply take flight, improvising freely until the material ran its natural course. She noted that she was one of the very few cast members who could keep up with him in those moments, with director Garry Marshall later confirming that she was the only one willing to truly go off-script alongside Williams during the show’s first year.

Williams passed away in 2014 at the age of 63. Fairchild said she was completely unaware he had been ill when the news reached her, and described him as someone whose generosity and brilliance were every bit as real as his public reputation suggested.