#David Arquette Says Ex-Wife Courteney Cox’s Success on ‘Friends’ Was “Difficult” to Deal With

David Arquette is opening up about his relationship with ex-wife Courteney Cox and the difficulties they faced amid her fame on Friends.

During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, when the host asked if he ever felt “inferior to” or “less than” the Friends alum due to the massive success of the NBC show, the Never Been Kissed actor responded, “Yeah, absolutely.”

“It’s difficult, I mean in terms of like, I have some of the traditional male things where I want to like, provide and pick up the check and, you know, be the breadwinner,” he explained. “In the acting world, in general, you’re always going on this roller coaster of popularity and not able to get a job. So it’s like this weird thing. And then, when you’re comparing yourself to someone who’s at the top of the television iconic world, it’s kind of hard to put yourself there.”

After the two met when they worked as co-stars together in 1996’s Scream, they got married a few years later in 1999, during the height of Friends‘ success. They also share a daughter, Coco, who they welcomed in 2004. It wasn’t until 2012 that they filed for divorce, and a year later when their split was finalized.

Arquette added that earlier in their relationship, they had to do a lot of “learning” to be able to get through the “pain, and like arguments, or, you know, ego.”

Specifically, the Mrs. Davis actor said getting through the difficult periods as a couple “has to do with the way you’re taking things, the way you’re saying things, the way you’re responding to things, the way you’re, you know, allowing 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, helped a lot. He said, “working out some of the pain and trauma that I had so that I could open up and own sort of what makes me happy, what my needs are, where my boundaries are.”

Although he feels he and the Cougar Town actress “had a really great thing at the end,” looking back at how they handled everything, he said now, “I just encourage people to truly try to work it out.”

Arquette is currently married to Christina McLarty, with whom he shares two children. Cox is dating singer Johnny McDaid.