Courteney Cox Recalls 'Intense' Moment Her Fiancé Broke Up With Her During Therapy

Courteney Cox recently revealed that she once went to a therapy session with the intention to fix her relationship with her current partner, musician Johnny McDaid, but was hit with a devastating surprise instead.

During a Wednesday appearance on the podcast “Minnie Questions,” the “Friends” star told host Minnie Driver that she was completely caught off-guard when McDaid, her fiancé at the time, ended their relationship in a therapy session a few years after they began dating.

“We broke up, and it was really intense. We broke up in therapy. I didn’t know it was coming,” Cox said. “Whether I should have or not... we went to this therapist to talk about our boundaries, what we could and couldn’t accept about each other.”

She said, “Instead, he just broke up within the first minute.”

Cox said that she was “so shocked” and in “so much pain” from the breakup.

“I also don’t like surprises,” she said. “And he’s an incredible human being, so he wasn’t trying to surprise me. He was in that much pain in the relationship. There was that much that needed to be dealt with, that he had to protect himself around his heart.”

The couple began dating in 2013 and had announced their engagement the following year. In 2015, they shared publicly that they called off their engagement, but they confirmed a reconciliation in 2016.

Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid on May 10, 2022, in Beverly Hills.
Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid on May 10, 2022, in Beverly Hills. Leon Bennett via Getty Images

Cox also said in the podcast that she worked on herself after her breakup with the Snow Patrol musician and that she was ultimately “so thankful” for the temporary split.

“When we got back together, it was a different relationship,” she said.

In September, Cox celebrated on Instagram her 10th anniversary with a slideshow of photos of them together. She added that the two were introduced by Ed Sheeran.

“10 years!!!!” she captioned the post.

Cox celebrated McDaid’s birthday in July last year, by sharing on Instagram an edited photo of the guitarist that depicted him looking older, with gray hair.

“Happy birthday my sweetheart. Good to know that when you’re older… you’ll actually look older than me,” she captioned the post.

CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version of this article, Johnny McDaid was identified as Snow Patrol’s singer. Although he provides backup vocals, he primarily plays guitar and piano.

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