David Arquette Admits It Was 'Difficult' Dealing with Ex-Wife Courteney Cox's 'Friends' Fame

Arquette said the now-exes "definitely" were "learning and dealing with" her new fame throughout their time together

David Arquette is opening up about navigating differing levels of fame in a Hollywood relationship.

In an appearance on SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live, host Andy Cohen asked the Never Been Kissed actor whether he felt "inferior to" or "less than" ex-wife Courteney Cox amid the height of her Friends fame. (Cox, 58, played Monica Geller on the sitcom for 10 seasons, airing between 1994 and 2004.)

"Yeah, absolutely. It's difficult. ... I have some of the traditional male things where I want to like, you know, provide and pick up the check and, you know, be the breadwinner," Arquette, 51, said.

Related:Courteney Cox and David Arquette's Relationship: A Look Back

"In the acting world, in general, you're always going on this roller coaster of popularity and not able to get a job," he continued. "So it's like this weird thing. And then, when you're comparing yourself to someone who's at the top of the television iconic world, it's kind of hard to put yourself there."

Arquette said the now-exes "definitely" were "learning and dealing with that" throughout their time together. But there was still "a lot of pain and arguments" as well as "ego" early on.

Explaining how the pair navigated the situation, Arquette said: "A lot of it has to do with the way you're taking things, the way you're saying things, the way you're responding to things, the way you're allowing other, sort of, outside influences affect how you feel about yourself."

"I think building confidence or just focusing on yourself, like working out some of the pain and trauma that I had so that I could open up and own sort of what makes me happy, what my needs are, where my boundaries are," he continued. "But we had a really great thing at the end. I just think a lot of people end up when relationships end and lawyers get involved, they really sort of battle a lot of the time and they end up really fighting and spending a lot of money to lawyers where they should be sort of splitting with each other."

He added, "I just encourage people to truly try to work it out."

The two Scream costars were married from 1999 to 2013. Despite their separation, Cox and Arquette have managed to forge a friendship while co-parenting their 18-year-old daughter, Coco.

In a 2020 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Arquette opened up about his "really great relationship" with the Cougar Town alum. "We're friends, and we've communicated a lot because of Coco," he explained.

Related:Courteney Cox Opens Up About Her 8-Year Romance with Johnny McDaid: 'Love Is Precious'

But Arquette admitted that this process hasn't always been easy, especially when it came to raising Coco in her teenage years.

"We've just been really open and supportive of each other. We never went head-to-head, [or] battled each other, through the process of divorce and through the process of raising our kid," he said. "So it's made for a friendship and relationship that is out of respect."

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Arquette also shares sons Charlie West, 9, and Augustus Alexis, 6, with wife Christina McLarty. Meanwhile, Cox is currently dating Snow Patrol member Johnny McDaid.

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