- Friends actress Maggie Wheeler says she received a sign from Matthew Perry
- Perry died of a drug overdose in late 2023
- Wheeler played Janice in Friends, a former girlfriend of Perry’s Chandler Bing
More than a year after his death, Janice actress Maggie Wheeler has described how she believes her late Friends co-star Matthew Perry visited her in hawk-form.
Perry died in October 2024 from a drug overdose. He was just 54 years old. Throughout his life, Perry had battled various addiction issues.
Read more: How to watch Matthew Perry: An American Tragedy
In December of the same year, Perry’s cause of death was confirmed, with his passing caused by a ketamine overdose.
Cut to 2025 and one of his most iconic Friends co-stars has shared a touching story describing what she believes to be a spiritual visit from Perry in animal-form.
Read more: Criminal investigation launched into actor Matthew Perry death
Wheeler played Janice in various seasons of Friends. Known for her iconic, jittery laughter, Janice was an on-again-off-again girlfriend of Perry’s Chandler Bing.
What did Maggie Wheeler say about Matthew Perry?
The Janice actress shared her spiritual story whilst visiting the Still Here Hollywood podcast with host Steve Kmetko on Monday 14 April.
During the pair’s chat, Wheeler explained how she believes she was visited by a spirit in bird-form. The story emerged while she was discussing the death of her brother who, like Perry, also passed following a battle with addiction.
“Lots of people talk about spirits showing up as birds and, you know, other things that kind of send a message when someone passes,” explained Wheeler.
“And after Matthew died, I was in a neighbor’s pool, and I was alone, and there was nobody else around. I was on my back, and I was thinking about my brother. And I said, you know, ‘Look out for him,’ and two hawks flew over my head and flew past me. One circled around and came and got the other one, and it flew past me.
“So that was a beautiful moment, if you go for that kind of stuff.”
“Just heartbroken and sad”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Wheeler got candid about the impact Perry’s death had on her personally.
She told Kmetko that she stills feels “just heartbroken and sad that, you know, that he couldn’t make it out of this incredibly dark tunnel that he was in for so long.”
Perry had publicly discussed his experiences with addiction, with much of his story shared in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
“Even when you know the road somebody is on, the day you know they’re gone still comes as a surprise, even when you think you are preparing for it. And in Matthew’s case, he seemed to have turned a corner,” added Wheeler.
“Things seem to have been going well in certain kinds of ways. There’s just that feeling of like the rug being pulled out.”
