The estranged couple were separated for months before news leaked about the break-up, but actor Arquette can still clearly remember how his wife fell into a deep depression after hinting the marriage was over.
In a candid TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired in America on Thursday (24Feb11), Arquette revealed he felt sure Cox had found another man.
He explained, “She said, ‘I don’t want to be your mother anymore’… (and then) she came down (stairs) really depressed one day, and was like, ‘I’m really just not happy’.
“I felt really sort of abandoned at that point. A deal is a deal… I was angry with… the dynamic of our relationship. I was angry with my wife.
“And there were tabloid stories coming out about her and someone on her (TV) show (Cougar Town) having, you know, an affair… I thought she was having an affair with someone.”
The couple is still working on their relationship in an effort to save the marriage and Arquette recently completed a 28-day rehab stint to help him battle alcohol and marijuana issues.
He admits counselling has helped him come to terms with the bad person he had become, spending his married life in the shadow of a much richer, much more famous partner: “I was sort of always in her shadow. And I’d held all this bitterness.”
But he’s not sure the marriage can be saved: “I love Courteney… I want us to be the best people we can be, and then, if it’s together, I want her to be happy, and if me even being the best person I can be doesn’t make her happy in a partner… that’s still to be answered.
“I know that I’ll be with her for my whole life. And we have an amazing family together and we’re really great parents together.”
