David Arquette talks about his relationship with ex-wife Courteney Cox and the difficulties they faced amid her rise to fame Friends.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy CohenLivewhen the host asked if he ever felt “inferior to” or “less than” the Friends alum due to the huge success of the NBC show, the Never been kissed actor replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
“It’s hard, I mean in terms of like, I have some of the traditional masculine things that I want to love, give and collect the bill and, you know, be the breadwinner,” he explained. “In the acting world, you generally always go on this roller coaster of popularity and you don’t get a job. So it’s such a weird thing. And then, if you’re comparing yourself to someone who’s at the top of the iconic television world, it’s pretty hard to put yourself there.
After the two met when they teamed up as co-stars in 1996 scream, they married a few years later in 1999, during the height of Friends‘ good luck. They also share a daughter, Coco, whom they welcomed in 2004. It wasn’t until 2012 that they filed for divorce and a year later their split was finalized.
Arquette added that they had to “learn a lot” earlier in their relationship to get through the “pain and similar arguments, or, you know, ego.”
In particular, the Mrs. Davis actor said getting through the rough patches as a couple “has to do with the way you take things, the way you say things, the way you react to things, the way you, you know, allow other, sort of, outside influences affect how you feel about yourself.
For him personally, Arquette added that working on his confidence and just himself in general has helped a lot. He said, “getting rid of some of the pain and trauma I had so I could open up and own what makes me happy, what my needs are, where my limits are.”
Although he feels that he and the Puma city actress “had a really great thing at the end,” looking back at how they handled everything, he now said, “I just encourage people to really try to work it out.”
Arquette is currently married to Christina McLarty, with whom he shares two children. Cox is dating singer Johnny McDaid.
