David Arquette Admits He Felt ‘Inferior’ To Ex Courteney Cox During Her Friends Fame

David Arquette knows all too well how difficult it can be for partners to work in the same industry.

As you most likely know, the 51-year-old actor married his Scream co-star Courteney Cox in 1999, during the height of her fame when she starred on the mega-popular show Friends. But years after the duo tied the knot, they announced they were doing a trial separation in 2010. And two years later, they officially filed for divorce.

More than a decade after their split, David has now opened up about the former couple’s relationship on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live – and he got very candid about the cause for some of their marriage troubles. When host Andy Cohen asked if he ever felt “inferior” to Courteney “based on how successful” her sitcom was during their romance, he responded on Friday:

“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.”

Related: Courteney Cox Calls Fillers Her Biggest Beauty Regret

Being an actor as well, David recognized the “rollercoaster of popularity” within the entertainment industry. However, he said often let his “ego” get in the way and compared himself to Courteney’s success – leading to a ton of “pain” and “arguments” during their marriage. The Never Been Kissed star explained:

“In the acting world in general, you’re always going on this rollercoaster of popularity and, you know, not able to get a job, so it’s like this weird thing. And then when you’re, you know, comparing yourself to someone who’s at the, you know, top of the television, iconic world, it’s kinda hard to put yourself there, so there was definitely like learning and dealing with that, and a lot of pain and, you know, arguments or, you know, ego, early on.”

Wow. At least he is honest about this…

When asked by Andy how the two navigated this matter at the time, David stressed that it came down to doing a lot of self-work and learning how to properly communicate with each other:

“A lot of it has to do with, you know, the way you’re taking things, the way you’re saying things, the way you’re responding to things, the way you’re, you know, allowing other sort of outside influences affect how you feel about yourself, so I think like building confidence or just, you know, focusing on yourself, like working out some of the pain and trauma that I had so that I could open up like, you know, and own sort of what makes me happy, what my needs are, where my boundaries are.”

As we mentioned before, David and Courteney, who share daughter Coco, officially split in 2013 – despite working through those problems. Although they ended their marriage, the Scream actor told Andy he was ultimately proud of how well they handled their breakup. He also encouraged anyone going through a divorce to work out their issues during the process, especially if there is a child involved:

“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, so I just encourage people to really try to work it out so that you have a healthy relationship for your child — that’s what it’s really all about.”

You can ch-ch-check out his interview with Andy (below):

Thoughts on what David had to say, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via MEGA/WENN, WENN, FayesVision/WENN]