Courteney Cox Once Got Broken Up With During Couples Therapy

"I was in so much pain."

There was a time when things weren't all rainbows and butterflies for Courteney Cox and her partner, Johnny McDaid. During an episode of Minnie Driver's podcast, Minnie Questions, Cox opened up about the Snow Patrol musician breaking up with her during couple's therapy three years into their relationship. The couple, of course, has since rekindled their romance.

“Three years in, we broke up, and it was really intense,” she remembered. “We broke up in therapy. I didn’t know it was coming, whether I should have or not, it was just like, we went to this therapist to talk about our boundaries, what we could and couldn’t accept about each other.”

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Cox then revealed that McDaid, to whom she was engaged to at the time, initiated the split “within the first minute" of their session, leaving her "shocked" and "in so much pain."

"We were engaged, and I was so shocked. I was in so much pain," she recalled. "I also don’t like surprises, and he’s an incredible human being, so he wasn’t trying to surprise me. 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," she recalled.

Instead of getting angry, she used the time alone to reflect. Cox continued to see the therapist, who helped her to heal and work on herself. After making a change in her life, the couple eventually reunited.

“I had a great therapist. I went to the same one, I kept seeing him, the one that we’d met on the breakup day,” she explained. “It was brutal to go to his office after that for a while, but then it was great. And I’m really thankful a) nothing will ever hurt me that bad again, and then b) most of all, most importantly, I completely changed."

“As opposed to going ‘fuck him,’ you know, getting in this mode of anger, I went in,” she continued. “And I did the most work on myself, by far. I learned how to reclaim my voice, boundaries, what were my motives in life? Like, what was my part in this?"

Cox adds that when they did get back together, "it was a different relationship."

"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, or things I didn’t know how to let go [of] to be in a relationship. To not take things personally," she said. “And I’m thankful that Johnny was so bold and brave, ‘cause it was life-changing for me, and I’m sure for him."

The couple first met in 2013 and were engaged nine months into dating. The aforementioned calling off of the engagement happened in 2015, however, the two got back together in 2016. During an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2019, Cox shared that the two were not engaged, but that things were better than ever. She also said at the 2022 Brit Awards that she wouldn't be opposed to marrying her longtime love, but that it just wasn't something that was on their minds.

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