Courteney Cox Opens up About Being Blindsided by Johnny McDaid Breakup

Courteney Cox just shared new details about how she and Snow Patrol band member Johnny McDaid broke off their engagement back in 2014. At the time, she and McDaid went to couple’s therapy in the hopes of reviving their relationship rather than calling off their wedding. However, in a new interview on Minnie Driver’s Minnie Questions podcast, Cox said that McDaid decided to break up with her just one minute into their first therapy session.

“I didn’t know it was coming,” Cox recalled. She and McDaid began dating in late 2013 and became engaged in June of 2014, but they called off the engagement not long afterward. In spite of this, Cox and McDaid have remained a couple for about a decade now, but Cox has now revealed that their first couple’s therapy session was almost the end. Looking back, she said she actually believes that breakup was an important milestone for herself and McDaid, and for them as a couple.

“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,” she said. Cox said that it wasn’t just the breakup itself, but the forms of self-improvement that led her to explore – particularly talk therapy.

“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,” Cox said. She acknowledged that it was “strange” that she and McDaid had gotten back together, but had never considered marriage since. Right now, there’s no hint of an engagement for the couple.

Cox is best known for her role on Friends, but her only marriage in real life was actually to a co-star from a different series – Scream. She and actor David Arquette married in 1999 and had a daughter together in 2004, but they separated in 2010. The two remained close as friends and co-parents and did not finalize their divorce until 2013. They even continued appearing in Scream movies together in the years that followed, though their characters’ relationship was more rocky than theirs was in real life. These days, fans get their best glimpse of Cox’s love life on Instagram, where she recently celebrated her anniversary with McDaid.