Courteney Cox Opens Up About 'Brutal' Breakup With Johnny McDaid and Criticism About Her Appearance
Courteney Cox is facing her fears -- and her biggest critics.
The 52-year-old actress embarked on quite the adventure as she explored the Irish Highlands on Monday’s episode of NBC’s Running Wild With Bear Grylls, opening up to the host about everything from love to family to her appearance.
“If I ever want to feel really bad about myself, I just click on one of those Daily Mail comment sections,” she shared with Grylls when asked how she’s dealt with the limelight.
“I think there’s a pressure to maintain [your looks], not just because of fame, but just, you know, being a woman in this business,” she continued. “Getting older has not been… I don’t think it’s the easiest thing, but I have learned lessons.”
“You know, I think I was trying to keep up with getting older, trying to chase that… you know, it’s something you can’t keep up with. So, the more you relax into it and the less I try… ‘cause sometimes you find yourself trying and then you look at a picture of yourself and go, ‘Oh God.’ Like, you look horrible,” she said.
Cox admitted it’s easy to take criticism personally, and get caught up in her own looks. “I have done things that I regret, and luckily they’re thing that dissolve and go away. So, that’s good, because it’s not always been my best look,” she revealed. “So, now I just have a new motto: ‘Just let it be.’”
Something else the former Friends star has learned to just “let be” is her relationship with Snow Patrol frontman Johnny McDaid. The couple sparked reconciliation rumors after being spotted kissing in April; they ended their engagement the previous December.
“It’s just… everything’s new,” she told Grylls. “And we have both really worked on ourselves on the parts that needed the most attention. And it feels really different.”
“We were engaged for over a year and then we broke up,” she explained. “There’s something about… you know, he’s from Ireland. And the way he regards love is precious. We have to treat it in a different way. It’s more special. You coddle it.”
“I didn’t know how to regard love the way he does,” she shared. “And it definitely made a lot of mistakes that I see, whether it’s co-dependency or people-pleasing. I didn’t know how to bring it in. I was always external."
“I definitely have learned a lot, and no matter what, I will be a better person from that breakup, even though it was so brutal,” Cox added.
WATCH: Courteney Cox and Ex Johnny McDaid Spotted Kissing in London
The actress also dished on her 2011 split from ex-husband David Arquette, which was surprisingly less brutal.
“It wasn’t a dramatic ending. It was more of a…just, I don’t know. I mean, as divorces go, I would say it’s one of the better ones, for sure. We’re good co-parents together,” she stated, praising how they’ve been able to stay focused on daughter Coco, 12.
“I think that we were such good friends,” she said. “We found ourselves leading separate lives and just coexisting and being great friends, but not having the intimacy that…is so important in a relationship. I think you really need to work in a relationship, and I think we tried.”
“We’re just really different, too. I’m the polar opposite of him,” she explained, adding that daughter Coco is “really a combination between me and [David], for sure.”
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