David Arquette: Why Courteney Cox and I Split
Credit: Amy Graves/WireImage.com
A day after announcing that he and Courteney Cox are calling it quits after 11 years of marriage, David Arquette phoned Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite radio show Tuesday morning to set the record straight.
"It breaks my heart," he said of their decision to separate, adding that he is "not the one that called this [separation] in order. "I've been begging Courteney to get back with me," he later added. "She's conflicted too."
So what went wrong?
During the very candid conversation, Arquette, 39, implied that Cox, 46, grew tired of his kooky ways.
For their 11th wedding anniversary this past June, she bought him a motorcycle. "She said to me, 'I don't want to be your mother anymore,'" he recalled. "And I appreciated that about her ... She didn't want to tell me, 'Don't do that.' She didn't want to nag me anymore."
Without elaborating, Arquette said that he had started doing things that would "embarrass" his wife publicly. (He recalled she once told him not to get any more tattoos.)
His kooky behavior probably seemed "charming" to her when they first met on the set of Scream in 1996, he said. "But that stuff starts getting old."
By the time they started filming Scream 4 in Ann Arbor, Mich., this summer, he said he was "feeling distance." He said they hadn't been intimate "in a month or so." (His wife is "real and emotional... She's an emotional woman and if it doesn't feel right, then she doesn't feel like bonding in that way," he said.)
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He said he remembers telling her, "'If you're not my mother anymore, I am going to be myself.'"
He said he found himself going out with the younger castmates and having fun. "She wants me to be who I am," he said of Cox. "She needs to make that decision if this is person she wants to spend her life with or not." Cox also has had "her issues," Arquette said. "She tries to take on everybody's problems. She's the mother to everyone. That's why she doesn't want to be the mother to me anymore."
He denied that anyone cheated.
He confirmed that he has gotten intimate with L.A. cocktail waitress Jasmine Waltz, but he stressed, "I am a single man" -- and they are no longer together.
As for reports this past spring that Cox was getting cozy with her Cougar Town costar, Brian Van Holt, Arquette said he confronted her and she denied an affair.
"I do believe her ... I truly don't think she ever had an affair," he said, adding that if anything perhaps they formed an "emotional" bond.
Asked if she ordered the separation because she wanted to see other people, Arquette said, "Maybe. I don't know."
How is daughter Coco coping?
When they recently broke the news to her, they took her to the beach and had a picnic.
He said they explained to her that "'we're grown-ups .. and grown-ups need to figure out their lives.'"
"'Are you guys getting divorced?'" he recalled her asking.
"'No, we're taking time off to know ... what we want out of our mate better,'" he remembered telling her.
Arquette wanted to stress that he and Cox are "still tight. I love her with all my heart and she loves me with all her heart ... We're trying to get real with each other, real with ourselves.
"I want her to be happy," he later said, "more than I was happiness for myself."
Tell Us What You Think
15well 2 start off this is just my opinion i think if 2 ppl love one another then they should stay together an try working thing out. i mean i have been married for 10 yrs an i know its hard some times but its worth fighting 4 if u still love each other.i have been threw alot an i mean alot but things r so much better when u stop trying 2 change the other person and remember that u were friends before u fell into the relationship. i think u should try listen and talkin about every little emotion u r feelin. dont put the blame on one another or piont the finger and tell them they r wrong just put urself in there shoes an see how there day goes instead of worryin about what he or she did wrong or forgot, but like i said thats just my opinion an my way of doing things.
@Laurie...I did read earlier on US Weelys website, that they did do counseling/therapy, since 2007 or something like that.
So grow up and start acting like a man already. He's nearly 40, nobody wants a guy who acts like a doofus do*uchebag at that age. Acting silly is cute when you're 20, but at his age it's just freakin' annoying!
I knew this would happen eventually!
Will the split help "Cougar Town"?
whatever makes them happy. Life is too short to spend it miserable.
There are such things as therapy and medication to combat ADHD, etc. If they haven't tried either, shame on them for their lazy attitudes towards their marital vows.
He said she didnt want to mother him anymore because she is always mothering everyone else and trying to fix their problems. Guess we know who he is talking about! #aniston
She behaves like a control freak. She tries to run everyone's life including her friends. She knew who and what he was like and married him. Now that she has realized she couldn't change him, she wants out. So sad for that like girl of theirs.
He sounds like a really good guy, i know he admitted to a little hanky panky but sometimes people do let lonely. after all, sounds like she wanted out.
Don't worry David. She will realize that most men can act immature and goofy. I'd rather have a man who won't grow up but is faithful and has my back, then some "grown up" men who cheat around on their wives and walk away. She doesn't realize how good she has it - hope you can work things out!
So sad but I am surprised she was able to put up with him this long. Sometimes opposites attract but sometimes the differences are just too great to overcome.
After reading this, I'm surprised they lasted this long. I appreciate his honesty.
A Man-child is hard to take care of...No wife wants to be a mother to her husband.
Good grief, no, you are not single, David. You are separated, far from being single. And you have now publicly admitted to stepping out on your wife. Not the smartest thing in the world. You can have a fun, playful side to you but at some time you need to act like a man and not a child--Courtney already has one of those. It sounds like Courtney was too controlling but it sounds like she was making strides to overcome it. Too bad they couldn't have given it a little more time.