Courteney Cox revealed how she once walked into a couples therapy session engaged to her longtime beau, Johnny McDaid, and came out a single woman.
The Friends star, 59, spoke about how she was completely blindsided when the Snow Patrol band member broke up with her about a minute into the therapy session and left her “so shocked.”
Courteney had been with Johnny, who she described as “an incredible human being,” since 2013. They decided they needed to discuss “boundaries” during the couples therapy session, which took place about three years into their relationship.
Courteney Cox revealed how she and her boyfriend, Johnny McDaid, once walked into a couples therapy session to discuss "boundaries" and walked out single
Image credits: Courteney Cox
Recalling the incident from “about five years ago,” Courteney said on the Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver podcast, “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.”
Instead of sitting through the session, “he just broke up within the first minute. And I was like, what? We were engaged, and I was so shocked. I was in so much pain,” the Scream actress told the podcast host.
“He wasn't trying to surprise me. He was in that much pain in the relationship,” she continued. “There was that much that needed to be dealt with that he had to protect himself around his heart.”
The Friends star said she is "so thankful for that breakup" because it made things better when she got back together with the Snow Patrol band member
Image credits: Courteney Cox
As she reflected on their brief split, the Cougar Town star revealed she is “so thankful for that breakup” because it truly allowed her to do “the most work on [herself] by far.”
“I learned how to reclaim my voice, boundaries. What were my motives in life? Like, what was my part in this?” she added.
The TV icon managed to deal with things from her childhood and her past before resuming her relationship with the musician.
“It really taught me how I operated in the world, what were the things from my childhood that I needed,” she said on the podcast. “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.”
The director and producer was previously married to David Arquette from 1999 to 2003, and they became parents to daughter Coco together.
In 2013, the Golden Globe Award-nominated actress was introduced to Johnny by world-famous musician Ed Sheeran. Nine months into their relationship, the pair got engaged but briefly broke up in 2015 and called off their engagement. They eventually reconnected and resumed their relationship, but they have not since gotten engaged to each other again.
Courteney Cox and boyfriend Johnny McDaid were introduced to each other by singer Ed Sheeran
Courteney revealed that their brief split was “life-changing” and was for the better.
“When we got back together, it was a different relationship, but also because it really taught me how I operated in the world,” she said.
“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.