Actor Matthew Perry opened up about finding love after overcoming his addictions.
Perry spoke to People about his “tremendous amount of fear” of love and his struggles with his past relationships, including the end of an engagement.
“That is what I manifest, something that’s wrong with them. And then I break up with them,” he said.
The actor added, “But there can’t be something wrong with everyone. I’m the common denominator. I left first because I thought they were going to annihilate me.”
1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
The “Friends” star explained that “through a lot of work,” he has now gotten over that fear.
He said: “I’m going to learn as I go. The thing that’s changed about me is I have no interest in hanging out with somebody that I don’t know or somebody that I’m not that into. The next person I really take seriously is somebody that I’m going to be in love with and not be scared by the things that used to scare me.”
Perry is now ready for love and sees a wife and children in his future.
“I’m not run by the fear I used to be run by so everything’s kind of different. I’m feeling more confident and I’m not afraid of love anymore, so the next girl I go out with better watch out,” he said.
Perry also believes he would be a “great” dad.
“I think I’d be great. I really do. I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, and that’s probably why, but I can’t wait,” he said.
Perry battled with an addiction to drugs and alcohol over the years and went to rehab 15 times.
He spoke about the importance of his sobriety, saying, “Everything starts with sobriety. Because if you don’t have sobriety, you’re going to lose everything that you put in front of it, so my sobriety is right up there.”
Continuing, he said, “I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
