- Courteney Cox reveals that her fiance Johnny McDaid dumped her just minutes into a couple’s therapy session
- The pair have been together for over a decade – but the incident occurred three years into their relationship
- Cox now says she is ‘thankful’ for the breakup
They’ve been together for over a decade.
But this week, Courtney Cox revealed that she and fiance Johnny McDaid had broken up – within the first minute of a relationship therapy session.
Now back together again, the Friends star, 59, told the tale on Minnie Driver’s podcast about their plight.
After the Snow Patrol singer, 47, and actor sought help for their “boundaries” about what they could and couldn’t accept in their relationship, things quickly went pear-shaped and McDaid called time on their romance – despite being engaged at the time.
“So three years in, we broke up, and it was really intense. We broke up in therapy,” Cox recalled to Driver. “I didn’t know it was coming.”
She continued, “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 me,” she reflected. “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.”
Despite obviously being in pain due to the “shocking” breakup, Cox continued to see the therapist alone – and the pair eventually tried again with their relationship.
Celebrating their 10 year anniversary last September, Cox revealed of the experience, “I’m so thankful for that breakup, because 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. 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.”
She added, “It’s so much easier to stay and ride things out and make excuses. The fear of pain is too much to handle,” she explained. “Once you are bold enough to make decisions and go through the pain… Everything’s easier.”
