Courteney Cox has revealed she was blindsided when her longterm love Johnny McDaid called time on their relationship five years ago.
The Friends star confessed that the Snow Patrol musician dumped her one minute into a therapy session they had organised in an attempt to fix their relationship.
The actress admitted that she was thankful for the split, as it ultimately made their relationship stronger.
Courteney told the Minnie Questions podcast: “Johnny and I broke up five years ago. So three years in we broke up and it was really intense. We broke up in therapy.”
“I didn’t know it was coming. Whether I should have or not, it was just like we went to this therapist to talk about our boundaries – what we could and couldn’t accept about each other.”
She continued: “Instead, he just broke up within the first minute. And I was like ‘What?’ And we were engaged. And I was so shocked, I was in so much pain, I also don’t like surprises.”
“And he’s an incredible human being, so he wasn’t trying to surprise. He was in that much pain in the relationship.”
“There was that much that needed to be dealt with that he had to protect himself around his heart.”
“So as opposed to like going ‘F*** him’, getting in this mode of anger, I leant in and I did the most work on myself by far,” she admitted.
“I learned how to reclaim my voice, boundaries, what were my motives in life – like what was my part in this.”
“I’m so thankful for that break-up because a, when we got back together it was a different relationship, but also because it really taught me how I operated in the world – what were the things from my childhood that I needed,” she explained, speaking on the what she learned from the split.
“Whether it was to be adored by men. Things that I didn’t know how to let go to be in a relationship. To not take things personally. My boundaries, I just went into myself and I had a great therapist.”
“I went to the same one. I kept seeing him, the one that we met on the break-up day. And it was brutal to go to his office after that for a while. But then it was great.”
“And I’m really thankful a) nothing will ever hurt me that bad again, and b) most of all, most importantly, I completely changed.”
The mother-of-one said: “It takes a lot of bravery to end something that has so much passion, or end anything.”
“Any kind of relationship, it’s so much easier just to stay and ride things out and make excuses. You know fear of pain is just too much to handle.”
“But once you are bold enough to make decisions and go through the pain,” the actress continued.
“You can’t go around it, so just go through it and then when you do everything’s easier.”
“I’m thankful that Johnny was so bold and brave because it was life-changing for me, and I’m sure for him,” she added.
While the couple have since reunited, they decided to end their engagement, which Courteney confessed was “strange”.
But in 2022, Courteney said she wasn’t opposed to marrying Johnny some day.
The actress was married to David Arquette from 1999 to 2003, and they share a 19-year-old daughter named Coco.
