Sporting a grey beard and distinct paunch, former Friends star Matt LeBlanc looked barely recognisable as he peered out from under a dark baseball cap in a series of sightings in LA last week.
Rarely seen in public since the death of his co-star Matthew Perry from a drugs overdose in October 2023, the 57-year-old actor appeared scruffy and unkempt.
With the memory of Perry’s tragic demise still raw in the public consciousness, many feared LeBlanc might also be ‘unravelling,’ and it was reported that Friends cast mates Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox were visiting LeBlanc regularly at his home and ‘keeping an eye on him’.
In Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004 and has continued to delight new audiences since, LeBlanc and Perry were inseparable as flatmates Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing. Seated side by side in matching easy chairs, playing table football or recounting dating disasters, the pair epitomised the carefree optimism of youth. They were the happy-go-lucky buddies every 20-something viewer wanted to be.
Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry in Friends, where they played inseparable flatmates Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing
That image has been shattered as the scale of Perry’s drug use and addiction, the demons he battled, and how vulnerable he was to exploitation were revealed.
But LeBlanc, too, is a far cry from the endearingly dim and excitable character Joey he played on screen.
He once told an interviewer: ‘I’m much more low-key and reserved than my character in Friends. I’m just not amped up to go out in front of an audience and do a TV show. That’s not who I am.’
On another occasion he explained: ‘My favourite thing is not to work. I like to be with my family or my friends, to ride my bike. I do my thing, go home and live my life.’
And in the past few years as he has lost not only Perry but others to whom he was close – including fellow Friends actor James Michael Taylor who played Gunther and who died of prostate cancer in 2021 – LeBlanc it seems has made a conscious effort to protect his health and sanity.
In a move some are referring to as ‘quiet retirement,’ the actor, who is worth £80million is believed to have taken inspiration from Jack Nicholson who retired in 2010 after 55 years in the industry.
‘He is financially stable and doesn’t really want to be in the limelight any more,’ said one observer.
LeBlanc is fortunate not to be plagued by the addictions that blighted Perry’s life – smoking appears to be his only vice – but he is acutely aware of the fickle nature of showbusiness and the dangers it poses to those in its thrall.
Immediately after Friends ended he appeared in an eponymous spin-off, Joey, for two series from 2004-2006, and despite it earning him a fortune, the experience left him exhausted.
A decade after Joey ended he told an interviewer: ‘For years and years, I barely left the house. I was burnt out. Most actors call their agents and say, ‘What’s going on?’ I’d call mine and say, ‘Please lose my number for a few years.’
LeBlanc looks inconspicuous while out and about in Los Angeles last week
Away from the limelight, the friendship between LeBlanc and Perry transcended their TV roles.
The pair even lived close to each other in the upmarket enclave of Pacific Palisades.
LeBlanc’s beautiful home boasts an impressive car collection that centres around his beloved Porsches. Perry lived in a four bedroom, four bathroom house with hilltop ocean views that has just sold for $8.55million (£6.58million).
And when Perry died on the night of October 28 last year, in his hot-tub from an overdose of ketamine, neighbour LeBlanc was the first of the Friends cast to pay tribute to him.
‘Matthew. It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye,’ he wrote on Instagram. ‘The times we had together are honestly among the favourite times of my life.
‘It was an honour to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you. And I’ll never forget you. Never.
‘Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love.’
And in an aside that would have delighted fans of the ultimate on-screen bromance he signed off with a light-hearted quip that could so easily have been penned by a Friends scriptwriter: ‘And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.’
LeBlanc on set with fellow Friends stars (clockwise) Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Perry, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox
LeBlanc and Perry are back on the familiar set for Friends: The Reunion in 2021
That fateful day was just two years after the Friends cast reunited for a one-off show watched by 5.3million fans in the UK and many millions more worldwide. While the group may be best-known for their Friends performances, its members have carved out successful careers outside of it.
Aniston (who played Rachel Green in Friends) stars as TV anchorwoman Alex Levy in the hit Apple TV series The Morning Show, while Cox (Monica Geller) has become an entrepreneur with her own high-end home care cleaning range.
Lisa Kudrow, who played the loveable Phoebe Buffay, is a producer on the US version of reality TV programme Who Do You Think You Are? and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) stars as a depressed Hollywood screenwriter in the middle of an existential crisis in his new film Little Death.
LeBlanc, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to have any projects in the pipeline and appears to be at peace with that. It is perhaps not such a surprising move in the career of the man who landed the life-changing role of lovable Joey at 27 but never intended to have an acting career.
Brought up largely by his mother Patricia in Massachusetts, his father Paul abandoned the family when LeBlanc was a baby but came back into their lives when the actor was eight. Father and son have reportedly had a difficult relationship since.
After high school, LeBlanc tried his hand at carpentry and studied a building management course at a local college.
LeBlanc dropped out of school and went to Florida to try and become a model
Still in his teens, he dropped out and went to Florida be a model. But barrel-chested and only 5ft 10ins tall, he wasn’t what agencies were looking for, so he went to New York and took drama classes.
After small roles on film and TV, he was down to his last $11 when he landed the role of Joey in Friends in 1994. The series was a worldwide success over its ten series and continues to pull in viewers.
Married in 2003 to British-born model Melissa McKnight, their daughter Marina was born in February the following year, a few months before the final episode of Friends aired.
When Marina was 11 months old, she was diagnosed with cortical dysplasia that affected her ability to walk and talk and could cause seizures. LeBlanc called this period of his life a ‘dark time’ but the little girl eventually grew out of the condition.
The couple divorced in 2006 but continue to co-parent Marina.
It was then that LeBlanc appeared to set in motion a pattern of prioritising home life and pacing himself with work, which he still attempts to live by.
He took his first extended break from acting after his Friends spin-off series Joey had lukewarm reviews and lasted only two series. It was meant to be a one year hiatus but lasted for five.
He said at the time: ‘Maybe having a daughter, maybe that’s what it was, but life’s too short to be stressing out about your career. I don’t care as much as I used to.’
He was tempted back into the spotlight in 2011 as a fictional version of himself in the Hollywood satire series Episodes alongside British actors Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan, for which he won a Golden Globe.
That series required him to work only four months a year and LeBlanc described his off-months as being a time when he was happy being ‘his real self.’
He told reporters from the Television Critics Association that his daily routine involved him making breakfast for his daughter, taking her to and from school and helping her with homework.
‘We spend time together and take trips and do all kinds of stuff like that, so I feel really fortunate to be in a position where I don’t have to work [full-time]’ he said.
In 2016 LeBlanc was announced as one of the new presenters of the BBC’s flagship driving programme Top Gear. He was brought on board after presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s departure and became the first non-British star to host the show.
LeBlanc spent a three-year stint co-hosting hit driving show Top Gear from 2016
He presented four series before bowing out, saying it had been great fun but it ‘takes me away from my family and friends more than I’m comfortable with.’
The following year German racing car driver Sabine Schmitz, who had been a regular on Top Gear, died from cancer and LeBlanc was said to be deeply affected – not least because Friends co-star Tyler died the same year.
Cars remain a passion for LeBlanc and just this week he was spotted at a car showroom in Van Nuys, California, with Marina, talking to a salesman.
While it is true he likes to be at home, he is not a total recluse. He was seen with friends recently at the celebrity hangout Nobu in Malibu and is known to have a circle of trusted friends both in California and his home state of Massachusetts, even going to his high school reunion.
He had a long romance with American actress Andrea Anders, who he met in 2006 on the set of Joey. They were together for eight years before calling a halt to their relationship.
There was also another relationship with Top Gear producer Aurora Mulligan but that ended a few years ago and there has apparently been no hint of romance since their break-up.
But for fans still devastated by the death of Matthew Perry, they can at least take solace from the fact that LeBlanc appears to be following his own advice when he said in 2017 he was planning to ‘slow down and smell the roses’.