In a case of life imitating art, these stars of Scream began dating shortly after their
on-screen counterparts fell in love. But by the time Scream 4 hit theaters, the couple's
relationship was fast becoming a nightmare itself. Here are some of the reasons Courteney
Cox and David Arquette got divorced.
Back in 1996, Cox was the glamorous star of the world's biggest sitcom, and Arquette's
most notable credit at the time was a dorky vampire in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
While Arquette was understandably smitten from the moment they met, Cox took some time
coming round to his quirky charms.
In fact, Arquette freely admits that he had to trick Cox into giving him a chance, telling
Bang Media,
"We met at a pre-party before we started filming Scream. I was being a little cocky and Courteney
was like, 'Ah, I've heard of you,' and we just kept flirting for a while. She's just
so gorgeous and she jokes around so much."
Arquette's cockiness eventually paid off, and two years later the Friends star agreed
to become Mrs. Courteney Cox Arquette. But while their relationship initially proved
that opposites do attract, their differences eventually tore them apart.
"And, my ex wife. This is just, I can't go on, this is too painful."
Over the course of his career, Arquette has been the frontman of what Deviant Art deemed
"the worst rap metal band ever," a burlesque nightclub owner, and perhaps most bizarrely,
the WCW World Champion. But the quirks that initially attracted Cox soon became tiresome,
and the Friends star started to feel more like Arquette's mother than his wife.
In 2010, shortly after the couple announced a separation, an emotional Arquette openly
discussed the problems with an unlikely marriage counselor - Howard Stern. And during their
candid chat on the shock jock's radio show, Arquette admitted that maturity wasn't one
of his strong points.
He also revealed that Cox's choice of 11th wedding anniversary present was a clear sign
that she didn't want to, in his words, 'nag' him anymore. Cox gifted Arquette with the
one thing she'd previously banned him from having - a motorcycle. Arquette explained,
"She said to me, 'I don't want to be your mother anymore. And I appreciated that about
her. [...] She didn't want to tell me, 'Don't do that.'"
Arquette also expanded on the significance of Cox buying him a motorcycle in a 2018 interview
with Yahoo! Entertainment, joking,
"I was like: 'OK, this is kind of a gift that says: Why don't you go kill yourself?'"
But the actor did far more than live out his motorcycle fantasies once Cox seemingly gave
him free rein. He added,
"Then I just sort of started off where I left off in Scream 2 and I was like: 'I'm my own
man.' Then I just went bananas. There were little people involved. Circuses. I started
nightclubs and just blew up, so it got crazy for a while."
It's not exactly clear what Arquette got up to during the first of what he categorized
as "several midlife crises." But he acknowledged that he's gone through multiple turbulent
periods since his split with Cox.
Despite gaining a reputation as something of a playboy following his separation from
Cox, Arquette insists that he was always faithful when they were together. In the first of many
conversations with Howard Stern, the actor revealed that he'd only jumped into bed with
a cocktail waitress in the wake of their split. And in another chat just a few days later,
he admitted that this encounter left him emotional. Arquette told the shock jock,
"After the first girl I slept with [...] a few days later [...] I was, like, crying.
It was the end of all the intimacy I shared with my wife. It was like a new thing. It
was like [...] putting that away."
But was Cox as faithful while they were still very much an item? Although rumors had previously
surfaced linking her with Cougar Town co-star Brian Van Holt, Arquette doubts that his wife
ever strayed - on a physical level anyway. He told Stern that he'd asked Cox directly
about all the gossip and was left satisfied by her answer. He said,
"I do believe her. [...] I truly don't think she ever had an affair."
Arquette's blabbermouth didn't exactly help matters when it came to saving his struggling
marriage. According to Page Six, Cox was left "furious" after discovering that her husband
aired all of their dirty laundry in public.
And you can't exactly blame her. Arquette also told listeners that he and Cox hadn't
been intimate with each other for five months, and that he'd essentially been given a hall
pass to sleep with other women. He explained,
"She knows she's not f---ing me and she's like, 'Listen I want you to be able to do
whatever you have to do.' Essentially I'm free to see people."
Just a day after the interview, Arquette took to Twitter with his tail between his legs
to offer an apology for indulging in a little T.M.I. According to Page Six, he told his
followers,
"I went on Howard Stern yesterday to provide clarity and honesty about what I'm experiencing
but [...] shared too much. [...] It's alright for me to be honest about my own feelings
but [...] some of the information I provided involved others and for that I am sorry and
humbled."
Just one year after allegedly getting irate with Arquette over his lack of discretion
on The Howard Stern Show, the actress headed into the shock jock's studio for a spot of
oversharing herself.
Cox also brought Arquette, who was still legally her husband at that point, for what essentially
amounted to a public marriage therapy session. And she had no qualms about disclosing even
more details about their private life, including Arquette's constant arousal. She told Stern,
"Whenever I would need consoling from David, he could not literally put his arm around
me for one second without completely getting [aroused]."
To his credit, Arquette did show restraint in certain circumstances. Cox mentioned a
particularly hard period when her father was in his final days, and admitted,
"[David] was never like, 'Oh, I'm so sorry your dad is dying, can we f---?'"
Disney World certainly wasn't the most magical place on earth when the couple paid the theme
park a visit with their daughter. In their shared interview with Stern, the pair both
alluded to an incident in which Cox rejected Arquette's advances while staying in the Magic
Kingdom resort.
Cox explained that she just wasn't in the mood at the time. But Arquette seemed to interpret
this as concrete evidence that she was no longer interested in him. He told Cox,
"I think you're over it, baby. You just need to admit it and we just need to figure out
next steps."
However, Cox didn't accept Arquette's version of events. She said,
"You can't count [Disney World] as the place where you know I'm not into you. I had just
woken up. I don't think [attraction] is the issue."
Cox and Arquette might not have been lovers by the time they walked into The Howard Stern
Show together, but they weren't fighters either. Shouting matches weren't a regular feature
of the Cox-Arquette household, but bottling things up also didn't appear to have done
them much good. In another candid confession, Cox told Stern,
"We probably [didn't] get as real as we needed to as we do now. There are a lot of things
that David likes to do [that are] completely the opposite [of the] things I do. I'm a homebody.
David [...] doesn't drink anymore, he's completely sober, but he likes to go out and dance."
"I don't really like to go out, I love restaurants, I love to have people over to my house, but
I'm not really one to do a lot of stuff."
The pair hadn't filed for divorce at the time, but Cox seemed resigned to the fact that they'd
simply grown apart. She added,
"I don't want to inhibit him in his life. He really is a very gregarious guy, he's very
outgoing. I'm much more of an introvert."
Unfortunately, the couple never managed to recapture their initial physical spark. And
once again, Cox spilled the beans about their lack of bedroom action in a very public way.
Only this time, she got frank with TV's most enthusiastic survivalist.
In 2016, Cox braved the outdoors on Running Wild with Bear Grylls. While battling the
elements, the actress somehow found the energy to discuss her failed marriage and how her
connection to Arquette gradually changed over the years.
Cox revealed to the reality TV adventurer that her split from Arquette, quote, "wasn't
a dramatic ending." She elaborated,
"We found ourselves living separate lives - just coexisting and being great friends,
but not having the intimacy that is so important in a relationship. [...] We're just really
different, too. I'm the polar opposite of him. And that can be great for a lot of things,
but I need this kind of real, one-on-one connection."
"It is heartbreaking for something like that to end, but you also have to move on and deal
with it with grace."
In 2014, Cox revealed to More magazine,
"As divorces go, this is the best one we could provide."
The star also admitted that she still had regrets about how things ended with Arquette,
but acknowledged that after 14 years together they'd at least given things a good go. And
she harbored no ill feelings toward the father of her only child, adding,
"When you love someone, you want them to be happy, even if it's not with you."
"Having Courteney in my life has been one of the great joys and friendships and loves."
And things seem to have worked out for the pair in the long run. Arquette married Christina
McLarty, a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, in 2015, and the pair have two sons
together.
Meanwhile, Cox began dating Snow Patrol guitarist Johnny McDaid shortly after her divorce from
Arquette was finalized. And as of 2020, Cox and McDaid are very much still a thing.
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