Lizzy Caplan Told Matthew Perry She Had ‘No Room’ in Her Life for Him After Their Breakup

Friends star Matthew Perry leaves behind a legacy of perfect comedic timing. Sadly, he died in October 2023. While reports suggest Perry hoped to have a wife and kids someday, he never married — though he considered engagement with his longtime girlfriend and fellow actor, Lizzy Caplan. Here’s what Caplan told Perry after their failed romance.

Matthew Perry says his ex, Lizzy Caplan, said she had ‘no room’ for him in her life after she got engaged

Matthew Perry and Lizzy Caplan had a longstanding relationship of nearly six years. They began dating in 2006 when Perry crashed her 23rd birthday party. They went on to date until 2012. While Perry planned on getting down on one knee for Caplan, he never did, which may have played into the demise of their romance.

Perry discussed his relationship with Caplan in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. During their relationship, the actors were notoriously private. But he explained that he didn’t sustain much of a friendship after his breakup with Caplan, as she didn’t want much to do with him once her now-husband, Tom Riley, got down on one knee. Riley and Caplan tied the knot in 2017.

Perry explained how he tried to see Caplan while staying in London for his play, The End of Longing. He invited Caplan to the play and hoped she’d come. “There was one person who wouldn’t come to the play, even though I begged,” he wrote, according to Hello! “The woman I’d dated for six years was, by now, dating a British guy, and they were spending half the year in London, the rest in Los Angeles.”

Caplan emailed Perry back and said she wouldn’t come to see his play. “I replied saying I was a little hurt that she couldn’t make it … and then, a while later, I got an email telling me that she was getting married and that she had no room in her life for friends.” He described the email as “incredibly harsh” and not something he would “ever do to a person.”

“I’m glad she got married and that she’s happy,” Perry continued. “I want nothing but the best for her, forever.”

Lizzy Caplan refused to talk about her life with Matthew Perry in interviews

Lizzy Caplan received questions about her relationship with Matthew Perry in the past. And she refused to comment. When an interviewer with Oh No They Didn’t asked Caplan about her then-boyfriend, she acted like she couldn’t hear the questions. She also talked about how she felt proud to be anonymous in the Hollywood landscape.

“I can stand right next to paparazzi, and I do that sometimes,” she said. “I’m close with people who are far more famous, and they know how to avoid attention.”

Given Perry’s past with drug and alcohol addiction, the Mean Girls actor commented on alcoholic recovery in the interview. “One of the things they don’t talk about in recovery is that when you do get sober, and you do finally deal with your s***, it’s kinda boring!” she said. “You need to figure out how to not stay in your house. I’m not an alcoholic, but someone said they should show that movie in rehabs.”

How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

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