Best Celebrity Memoirs of 2022: Matthew Perry and More

Read all about it! Matthew Perry, Jennette McCurdy and more stars didn’t hold back in their debut memoirs this year.

The Friends alum released Friends, Lovers & The Big Terrible Thing in November, chronicling his life’s highs and lows from his experience on the beloved sitcom, his past high-profile relationships and a battle with addiction. Perry opened up about his sobriety journey, which led to multiple rehab stays through the years.

“People would be surprised to know that I have mostly been sober since 2001,” he wrote in the book. “Save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps over the years. When these mishaps occur, if you want to be sober, which I always did, you’d be given drugs to help you along. What drug may you ask? You guessed it: phenobarbital!”

While Perry played the sarcastic Chandler Bing throughout Friends‘ 10 seasons, he admittedly struggled behind the scenes.

“At the time I should have been the toast of the town,” the 17 Again star recalled to Diane Sawyer during an October tell-all interview, noting he would take “55 Vicodin” pills each day. “I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers and completely alone. … [My costar Jennifer Aniston] was the one that reached out the most. I’m really grateful to her for that.”

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Perry’s former costars, for their part, are equally proud of their longtime pal sharing his truth in Friends, Lovers & The Big Terrible Thing. “[They’re] all very supportive and proud of him to be coming clean and giving himself closure in so many areas,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly upon publication. “There was a wariness in the build-up to the release for sure, that he may have spilled a lot more embarrassing secrets than he did.”

Earlier in the year, McCurdy made headlines with her own memoir, which is titled I’m Glad My Mom Died.

“I wanted something that was bold and also something that I meant sincerely. I would never use a bold and attention-grabbing title if it weren’t authentic,” the iCarly alum told The Hollywood Reporter in August of naming her book after her tumultuous relationship with her late mother, who died in 2013. “I would never do it if it were just coming from a flippant place. That’s not my approach to humor. I knew that anybody who had experienced parental abuse would understand the title, and anybody who had a sense of humor would understand the title.”

In the book, McCurdy detailed her difficult relationship with her mom, who allegedly forced her daughter to start acting.

“You can’t quit! This was our chance! This was ouuuuur chaaaaance!” the Sam & Cat alum wrote at the time, referring to her mother’s reaction to McCurdy wanting to give up acting before landing the role of Sam Puckett on iCarly. “She bangs on the steering wheel, accidentally hitting the horn. Mascara trickles down her cheeks. She’s hysterical, like I was in the Hollywood Homicide audition. Her hysteria frightens me and demands to be taken care of.”

Scroll below for a look back at the best celebrity memoirs of 2022:

In addition to speaking about his addiction battle, the Fools Rush In actor detailed his relationships with the likes of Aniston, Valerie Bertinelli, Julia Roberts and Keanu Reeves.

“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry wondered in his book while talking about the death of Phoenix, who was a mutual friend of the comedic actor and Reeves.

The Serving Sara actor later apologized for his remarks, asserting he included a “random” name and was a “big fan” of the action star.

“Keanu thought the comments came out of left field. It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize,” a source told Us of Reeves in November.

In his November memoir, the Harry Potter star opened up about his three rehab stays and his bond with his wizarding castmates, including former crush Emma Watson.

“We’re soulmates, and we’ve always had each other’s back,” the Little Women actress wrote in the foreword for Felton’s memoir. “I know we always will.”

In September, Ripa released Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories about her marriage to Mark Consuelos, mental health struggles and her professional relationship with former cohost Regis Philbin, who died in 2020.

“My name had to be smaller than Regis’s name on the Live! title card and branding. A game of inches, which speaks for itself. But on that we agreed. Seniority, after all,” the All My Children alum recalled in the book. “His exit wasn’t about me. He had his reasons for leaving the show. Nobody gets that more than I do. I just wish I hadn’t become the target.” 

The Nickelodeon alum also detailed her relationships with costars Miranda Cosgrove and Ariana Grande in I’m Glad My Mom Died.

“Ariana misses work in pursuit of her music career while I act with a box. I’m pissed about it. I’m pissed at her. Jealous of her. For a few reasons,” McCurdy alleged about the “Dangerous Woman” songstress, reflecting on their short-lived Sam & Cat series. “So now, every time she misses work it feels like a personal attack. … From that moment on I didn’t like her. I couldn’t like her.”

The Vanderpump Rules alum’s Off With My Head: The Definitive Basic Bitch Handbook to Surviving Rock Bottom memoir was published in April, as Schroeder detailed what led to her firing from the Bravo hit. (The New Orleans native was axed from the reality TV show in June 2020, along with Kristen Doute, after past racially insensitive remarks resurfaced about former costar Faith Stowers.)

“Just imagine making a terrible mistake, but one that has nothing to do with how good you are at your job. And one that doesn’t truly reflect who you are,” Schroeder wrote at the time. “You’re told to stay quiet. You’re already ashamed of the mistake you made. You already want to fix it. But on top of that, every single person you know or have ever met knows about this mistake.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star’s Love Me As I Am book was published in March, as Beauvais discussed her past divorces, parenting challenges and RHOBH drama.

“It was a calculated risk for me,” the former Real cohost wrote of joining the Bravo show as the only Black Housewife. “I was confident that I would be able to have a little more control over my narrative. I couldn’t imagine that the franchise would take the risk of trying to play out the mythical stereotype of the angry Black woman. If they wanted that, they wouldn’t have come looking for me.”

Beauvais’ book quickly made headlines after costar Erika Jayne tossed a copy in the trashcan — and shared the proof via social media. The Haiti native has since found the Pretty Mess author’s actions to be upsetting, though the Georgia native does not regret trashing the memoir.

“When [Garcelle] came to the group, I was really excited and she even said, ‘Erika was the most welcoming,’” Erika exclusively told Us in May. “It’s upsetting to see that Garcelle is resistant to what I’ve been trying to say and has gone the other way and that’s her opinion and she has every right to do that, but I have every right to feel how I feel about it.”

In the Gilmore Girls alum’s fourth book, published in November, she opened up about her split from longtime partner Peter Krause for the first time.

“When my relationship of almost twelve years ended last year, I went into a sort of shock I’d never experienced before,” Graham wrote in Have I Told You This Already? Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember. “I’d be doing normal things like driving to the store, or putting in a load of laundry, but also have the sensation of watching myself doing these things from a distance. I felt the energy of having been shot out of a cannon, but somehow the cannonball — me — was also moving in slow motion.”

The Spice Girls singer (Sporty Spice) detailed behind-the-scenes memories of her life in the beloved girl band in The Sporty One.

“Geri [Halliwell] quickly emerged as wanting to be the leader of the group,” the England native recalled in her September memoir. “She struggled with the performance side of things much more than the rest of us. Perhaps to make up for that, Geri took on the role of pseudo-manager: she had ideas on how we should dress, how we should sound and who we should be.”

The Drake & Josh alum’s debut memoir was published in March as Peck opened up about being a child star, working with Drake Bell and his struggles with food and alcohol addiction.

“Growing up, I had an almost immediate abnormal relationship with food. I would observe friends who would freely pop open a bag of fruit snacks and not obsess over the other six in the cabinet,” Peck remembered in the book. “Kids who when their parents washed their clothes didn’t have melted chocolate bars in their pocket. I obsessed over it, enough to lie, cheat, and steal just to get my fix. If that meant sneaking into your family’s snack drawer when I came over, like an addict rummaging through a stranger’s medicine cabinet? So be it.”

The Crazy Rich Asians actress’ book of essays, Making a Scene, was published in October, where Wu opened up about her childhood, past traumas and the backlash to her tweets about Fresh Off the Boat. (The Hustlers star tweeted in 2019 that she was “so upset” and “literally crying” to learn the ABC sitcom had been renewed for a sixth season.)

“Suddenly, everything I’d held back for so long flooded the atmosphere and I felt like the hot microwaved tomato all over again. I didn’t care how I sounded; I just needed to finally make a sound,” Wu wrote, defending her social media message.

Wu’s tweet soon sparked backlash as she was accused of being a diva. “I realized I needed a wound to prove it, to prove that I hurt as bad as everyone said I deserved to hurt and it couldn’t be a little wound, it had to be the biggest wound in the world for it to be enough,” she continued in the memoir. “[My friend and I] were directed to the psychiatric ER of a mental hospital, where they took everything away from me and put me in a hospital gown.”