Keith Morrison opens up about stepson Matthew Perry’s death

hello I'm Keith Morrison and this is a DAT line Mini Mystery GQ calls him the granddaddy of True Crime he's regularly parody on SNL what did they find when they opened up the trunk of that car was my boyfriend's body oh my and crowds of True Crime obsessed fans stoping for selfies at events like crime conon and South by Southwest I just don't get at all but you know it's quite nice people are very nice to me Keith humble since the day I met him won't say it himself but the attention is very much

warranted over the last handful of years Dateline has exploded with 11 number one original podcasts and 1.4 billion downloads Keith's famous voice the main character these are great stories and you're Unshackled when you're doing podcast uh storytelling so I love doing them Keith joined the Friday news magazine in 1995 after a career at both NBC and in Canadian TV over the span of his more than 50-year career Keith has covered stories worldwide interviewing everyone from veterans to student pro

testers in tianan square to the biggest names in entertainment but for the last several years true crime has taken Center Stage Keith's upcoming project murder in the Hollywood Hills is about a band of women who would come face to face with a killer off camera Keith lives a relatively quiet life in California with this wife of 43 years Suzanne together they've raised six kids including the late actor Matthew Perry who was just 10 when Keith and Suzanne married I never tried to replace his dad bu

t I was uh I was there for him and he knew it and and and we we were we were close their family suffering an unimaginable loss in October of 2023 how are you and how is your wife after Matthew's passing well it's a as other people have told me hundreds of times it doesn't go away it's with you every day it's with you all the time and um there's some new aspect of it that assaults your your brain and you know it's not easy especially for his mom toward the end of his life they were closer than I'

ve seen them for decades and texting each other constantly and so he was happy and he said so and he hadn't said that for a long time it's a source of comfort but also you know he didn't get to have his third act and um that's it's not fair as he said himself if if I suddenly died people would be shocked but not too many people would be surprised uh and he was right I think did it surprise you it was the news you never want to get but you think someday you might [Music] so yes and no I guess is

the answer to that yeah do you um do you still feel his presence do you sense him you know we do this it's that just become this funny Trope of day line lit up a room right or the center of the room well he was and he was always the center of attention everywhere he went that kind of personality he was Goofy he was funny he was a seric but even if he didn't say a word he was the center of attention so yes I mean [Music] that's gone but you still feel the echo of it everywhere Matthews passing co

ming just a year after the release of his Memoir which chronicled the actor's ongoing battle with addiction as he put it himself in his book and in the talks that he had about his book it is a disease and it's a very very difficult one to beat he felt like he was beating it but you never beat it and [Music] he knew that too Keith I'm really sorry yeah well thank you I'm really sorry in the wake of Matthew's passing family and friends have started a foundation in his name the goal is to um to do

whatever can be done to help organizations rescue people in difficult situations and get them some help Keith doing in life what he does so well at work amplif the voices of others no longer here to tell their own story I still find it remarkable that you can be in a room with a half a dozen other people couple of Television cameras lights everywhere and the knowledge that what you're saying will be seen by millions of people and they do trust us these are truly truly truly deep and and and diff

icult things to get through but I come away from those conversations feeling it's a gift we lucky people you and I we are we are wow and he isn't first of all if you loved Keith already you saw a whole other side to him and he's never spoken about Matthew and I was almost afraid to ask him about it because you know when you love someone so much you're like that's his private uh stuff but he wanted to speak about him and I was so honored that he that he chose to do that I think your friendship an

d your long relationship was so evident there because he really shared his heart with you and you could just see that's a heart in pain a heart not that was in pain that is in pain and Keith's really protecting his wife's heart too because he kept saying that throughout like my wife is really you know H having a difficult go here but he's uh he's a good human being uh Keith is and someone good to have in your corner so we just love him and that that was the podcast so there's a lot more I should

mention so making space is the name of the podcast wherever you get your podcast you can find you can also right now scan the QR code on the screen and it'll take you where you need to go and that extended conversation drop today or uh yes I think so yeah yes does that was great hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today's Show every weekday at 11:00 a.m. eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com all day or click the link right here