In case you're late to the party, NBC is holding a two-hour "Friends" reunion special on February 21 to honor the legendary television director James Burrows, who directed the widely successful "Friends" series for all ten seasons. The reunion special will be absolutely legendary, as the cast of the sitcom has not been together since the series finale in 2004. Unfortunately there is a slight twist to the reunion special that some people might have missed. Matthew Perry, also known as Chandler Bing, will not be part of the reunion. Yes, I repeat, Chandler Bing will not be part of the reunion special.

While this all might come as a surprise to us, there are logical reasons why Matthew Perry will not be joining us.

According to Perry's publicist, he will be in the middle of rehearsals for his new play "The End of Longing" in London, which begins its previews on February 2. Apparently the NBC producers were already aware of this before they made their announcement about the "Friends" reunion, but still had a glimpse of hope that Perry would find his way there.

Unfortunately, Perry's new play in London isn't the only thing that may be holding him back from attending the reunion. After an interview with BBC radio host Chris Evans, Perry admitted that he simply cannot remember filming seasons 3-6 on the television series. While Chandler Bing might've been in the middle of Phoebe's surrogacy of her brother's triplets, Ross and Emily's brief marriage, and his own love affair with Monica Geller, it appears that Perry cannot remember such important events within the series. During Perry's time with the television show, he struggled immensely with an alcohol and prescription drug addiction, with seasons 3-6 of the series being his hardest time with the drug and alcohol abuse. Perry was in and out of rehab a few times for his addictive behavior; it wasn't until 2001 that his rehabilitation experience stuck with him, and it appears he's been clean ever since.

The dangers of alcohol and drug addiction are no stranger to any of us, but the hardest part to understand is how such a problem can cause one to forget about three years of his prime acting career. Perry claims he never came into work intoxicated but was usually "painfully hungover," which shows the terrifying long term memory effects that such an addiction can have on someone even of Perry's high status at the time. While many wonder how Perry could perform at such a high caliber while being under the influence and then suddenly not remember any of it is no mystery to brain researchers. These researchers claim that the part of the brain that is effected at long term status becomes more and more damaged with the amount of alcohol that is consumed on a daily basis for a long period of time. So it would make sense that Perry could be so successful in short term, but then not remember any of it years later. Perry admitted in 2002 to People Magazine that he was drinking up to a quart of vodka per day. So yes, I'd assume that Perry would be unable to remember that time of his life.

Along with his alcoholism, Perry was abusing prescription medication, specifically Vicodin, methadone, and amphetamines at the same time, which added to the level of intoxication and damage that Perry was causing his body every day. Although unprescribed prescription medication can cause its own negative effects on the human body, his memory loss is more relevant to his alcohol abuse than his pill popping.

While Perry has been clean for some time, he has not been selfish about his own road to recovery. He has shared it with many public sources and made his struggle well known to others in the hopes that his own personal journey may impact and inspire others to get clean just as he did, even if it did take a few tries. Perry has reached out to plenty of others on his own to help people cope with their addiction problems. His frequent public speaking and writing on the issue has been well received by others, along with rehabilitation and recovery programs that take his hard work to heart and use it to help others in their programs. Along with this, he has also turned his own personal property in Malibu into an addiction recovery center and in 2013 he earned the Champion of Recovery award from the White House.

Perry's recovery and stability has inspired many other people, but "Friends" fans can't help but think his absence at the "Friends" reunion may have something to do with the hardships he faced while working with the cast and television show. Although we will never really know the real reason behind Perry's decision not to attend, his choice has been well respected by the other cast members and producers, who will also miss him tremendously on the set where they will reunite for the first time in 12 years.

However, there is some good news here. Perry's publicist has mentioned that he may not be completely absent from the reunion as he is planning on filming something for the reunion as an add on to the two-hour special. So even though this may not be the reunion that all of us "Friends" fans were waiting patiently for (or not so patiently), at least there will be a trace of Chandler to know that he has not been killed off.

So Chandler, just know that you and your sarcastic comments will be missed at the reunion special.

As for everyone else, make sure you tune into NBC on February 21 to see what your favorite "Friends" characters and their children have been doing for the last 12 years!