The actress said their relationship was "never simple" but she cherished it thoroughly.
Best known as Monica Geller from the mega-hit T.V. show Friends, actress Courteney Cox found her big break in the industry when she was cast in the Bruce Springsteen video Dancing in the Dark. From there, it was just onwards for the star as she starred in the hit series Family Ties, opposite Micheal J. Fox. But, it was Friends that made her a household name.
While she was flourishing in her career, she found the love of her life in David Arquette and married him in 1999, reported the Us Weekly. However, they split in 2010. But did you know that the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective actress was with another man for more than 5 and a half years before Arquette came into her life? It was the Batman star, Michael Keaton.
The 56-year-old actress met Keaton in 1989 in the most casual way — through a mutual friend. She told the friend that she liked the actor's performance in the 1988 film Clean and Sober. The word reached Keaton, which led to them meeting and eventually falling in love, reported Instyle.
The details are not known since the pair was quite private about their love life but it's known that the two had their first date at Cox's house. Simple and sweet. She told People, “We talked for five hours. We talked about our dream homes—the great ones we’d seen and the kind we’d like to build ourselves.”
During the time that they dated, they always made their privacy a priority. The couple preferred home-cooked meals over going out to expensive and flashy restaurants. Keaton even bought the Scream actress a 6-burner stove as a house warming gift. They were a pair, totally in-sync, whose sensibilities matched on every level. “We were sympathetic on so many levels,” Cox said and continued, “If something weird happened, we would turn to each other and just say, ‘I know.’”
Cheat Sheet reported that being in the show business was an added factor to their comfort and understanding with each other. Cox once said that they practiced the scripts together all the time. “He always came up with the most clever ways of making a line funny,” she added and continued, “No matter how upset or pissed off I was, Michael could make a little face and crack me up.”
But, just when they were about to cross over the milestone of spending six years together, the wonderful couple parted ways mutually in 1995. “It’s the most important relationship I’ve ever had," she told People and continued, "and I think he’s the most wonderful person I’ve ever met."
Noting that “nothing about our relationship was ever simple,” the Friends star continued, “We still love each other.” Although she hinted at the possibility of reconciliation when she said, "With us, you can never tell,” they never got back together.
Courteney Copeland, her mother, was clearly upset with the couple's split and wanted her daughter to marry the Birdman star. Copeland said, “They were always trying to work on themselves.” She added, “They need to forget that and accept each other the way they are — and just get married.”
There were rumors that the Just Before I Go star was spotted wearing a ring but she later clarified that it was her grandmother's. She told L.A. Times, “I bet that three-carat diamond is really beautiful but I never saw it."
None of the actors came forward to explain why they chose to end their relationship, but two years post-breakup, she told USA Today, as cited by Us Weekly, “Relationships are tougher than I thought,” and added, “I’ve got a lot of work to do on myself.”
Talking about her future perspectives in relationships, she said, "The most important thing is to be with someone who’s creative and passionate about what they do.” That's when she met Arquette and eventually married him. After their divorce, she started dating Snow Patrol singer Johnny McDaid in 2013.
The two were engaged for a while but they later broke it off. After staying apart for 6 months, they got back together and now the actress claims that their relationship is better than it ever was. Talking to Ellen on her show, she said, "Isn't that strange? We broke off our engagement and he moved to England, then we got back together, and it's actually better than it was before. Everything is better."
Clarifying any doubts since they stay apart from each other, she added that things are better "not because he's in London, although the distance after that breakup - we were apart for six months - that really showed us a lot, and it's just better."
References:
https://www.instyle.com/news/tbt-courteney-cox-michael-keaton-relationship
https://people.com/archive/cover-story-handy-woman-vol-44-no-22/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-18-ca-14208-story.html