The actress shot to fame with the TV show Friends and won many hearts with her performance as Monica. But her personal life was quite a turbulent one.
Marriage is hard for everyone. When you add the media scrutiny to it that celebrities are subjected to, it just adds to the baggage. Some Hollywood couples are able to manage the pressures while others are not, and that is not because they don't try. In the end, fate does what it does best, set people on a course that is best for them so that they can learn.
Friends star Courteney Cox, who's Monica had a successful marriage on-screen with Chandler, played by Mathew Perry, did not have that in real life. And, she tried really hard to ensure that her marriage worked out. When something doesn't work out even after you have given it your best effort, it's probably better to release yourself from a cycle of guilt and let it go. So, the Scream actress doesn't allow the demise of her 11-year marriage to bog her down in life.
Her separation from former spouse David Arquette, whom she met while shooting Scream, has been one of the most dignified ones in Hollywood. The way she's been understanding towards her ex shows how strong she is as a woman.
She shared a takeaway from her split. "When you love someone, you want them to be happy, even if it's not with you," she told More magazine (via HuffPost). She acknowledged that sometimes, despite trying, it doesn't work out. "We were married for a long time, so it’s not like we didn't try," she said.
She also proved that she has no resentment towards her ex-husband for moving on. She had said that she was happy and excited for her ex who was going to have another baby. Arquette was expecting his first child with girlfriend Christina McLarty in 2014. And she's not all talk, she means every word of it, which was visible when she directed him in 2015 in her directorial debut with the film Just Before I Go. Since then, the Cougar Town actress has been working regularly in TV and is soon set to appear on Modern Family for a cameo with soccer star David Beckham.
She was asked by Bear Grylls in 2016 on his show why she and Arquette split up, and she said, "I think that we were such good friends. We found ourselves leading separate lives and just coexisting and being great friends, but not having the intimacy that...is so important in a relationship. I think you really need to work in a relationship, and I think that we tried. We're just really different, too. I'm the polar opposite of him. That can be great for a lot of things, but I need this kind of real, one-on-one connection."
She added that it was no "dramatic ending." "I mean, as divorces go, I would say it's one of the better ones. For sure. We're good co-parents together," she said.
The couple has one daughter, Coco, 15, who has become the spitting image of her mother. The actress spent a lot of time building her relationship further with her daughter. "I want to keep an open relationship with her," the mother-of-one said in 2017 to The New Beauty magazine.
"There are certain parts about getting older that are fantastic. Just watching my daughter go through, you know, the game of life...I see so much of myself in her, and I'm glad that...I've been through it, and learned enough now to actually help her go through things that are hard...I just have a great time with her," she said.
She had also expressed that she would want more children but it might be difficult for her.
"I suffered miscarriages, my dad died of a really rare cancer, and depression runs in my family, which made my doctor think I should get this gene [ MTHFR gene mutation] checked out," she explained. The gene affects the production of methylation in the body and can cause mental and physical health issues.
The actress, who defines herself as a go-getter, is not disheartened even when her body betrayed her. "I would love to have a baby now. I mean, I could carry someone else’s egg. I may be one of the older people doing it, but I would love to, with Johnny [McDaid] that is. I know it’s crazy, but I would," she said.
She was engaged to Snow Patrol musician McDaid in 2014. The pair broke up and later got back together, and are happier now than before.
"I didn't know how to regard love the way he does. And it definitely made a lot of mistakes that I see, whether it's co-dependency or people-pleasing. I didn't know how to bring it in. It was always external. I definitely have learned a lot, and no matter what, I will be a better person from that breakup, even though it was so brutal," she had said. She added that when they did come back together it was after working on themselves. "And it feels really different," she said.
References:
https://www.newbeauty.com/blog/dailybeauty/11013-courteney-cox-beauty/
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2014/01/28/courteney-cox-david-arquette-more_n_4681280.html?ri18n=true
