Kevin Connolly’s breakup with Nikki Cox, his costar on The WB’s Unhappily Ever After, marked his first heartbreak “where [he] wanted to die.”
“Nikki Cox, who played my sister [on Unhappily], and I started dating between seasons 4 and 5,” Connolly, 49, recalled during the Monday, December 18, episode of the“Hey Dude … The 90s Called!” podcast. “And this was the craziest thing. It was a couple days before the table read for season 5, and Jeremy London called me and said, ‘Kevin, get in your car… and drive down to 7-Eleven and open the National Enquirer.’”
The Entourage alum started driving up the street, fearful about the potential news. “I’ve got a knot in my stomach and start ripping through into the Enquirer and there’s a picture of Bobcat [Goldthwait] and Nikki dating.”
Connolly added that “the next day” or two was the Unhappily Ever After table read for the new episodes. “We had to just gut out 24 weeks of misery,” he quipped.
Throughout Unhappily Ever After’s remaining tenure — it ultimately wrapped in 1999 — Connolly was grappling with his heartbreak. (By 1997, Cox, now 45, had gotten engaged to Goldthwait, now 61. They split in 2005 before Cox moved on with now-husband Jay Mohr.)
“I remember my mom had said to me, ‘Can I ask you a question? Would it have been easier if it was Brad Pitt?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. That’s a very, very good question,’” Connolly said on Monday’s episode. “I don’t think it’d be great, but either way, it was pretty terrible.”
Connolly continued: “Yeah, I was gutted. I couldn’t sleep. It was one of those jobs.”
Connolly and Cox have “stayed in touch” since their breakup and Unhappily Ever After ended. “We catch up once in a while,” Connolly said.
Connolly, for his part, later dated socialite Francesca Dutton for one year until they split in July 2018. He has since moved on with Zulay Henao, with whom he welcomed daughter Kennedy Cruz in June 2021.
“I want to thank @zulay_henao my life partner in crime for the GREATEST gift a guy could ever ask for,” Connolly wrote via Instagram in March 2021 ahead of their daughter’s arrival. “I love you both more than anything in the world.”
He has been candid about how his relationship with Henao, 44, and their family has changed his life.
“Happy Mother’s Day @zulay_henao Mother’s Day was probably created after seeing how you do it,” Connolly gushed via Instagram in May. “Kennedy and I love and appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.”
