David Arquette says he felt inferior to Courteney Cox during her ‘Friends’ run

Courteney Cox and David Arquette were once one of Hollywood's most beloved A-list couples, but Arquette revealed that he felt inferior to his "Friends" star ex-wife.

Arquette recently appeared on SiriusXM’s "Radio Andy," and host Andy Cohen asked him if he ever struggled to navigate his and Cox's different levels of professional success.

"Yeah, absolutely. It’s difficult. I mean, I have some of the traditional male things where I want to like, you know, provide and and pick up the check and be the breadwinner," Arquette answered.

The "Mrs. Davis" star said actors always feel like they're on a "rollercoaster of popularity," with the next acting job never a guarantee, which made it "weird" for him to be married to Cox, who was famously earning $1 million per episode during the last two seasons of "Friends."

"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," Arquette told Cohen.

"So there was definitely like learning and dealing with that and a lot of pain and arguments or ego, early on," he added.

Arquette, who guest-starred on "Friends" in 1996, went on to say that he dealt with his and Cox's professional differences by "building confidence" in himself.

“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," the actor said.

"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 what makes me happy, what my needs are, where my boundaries are,” he added.

Arquette and Cox, who met on the set of the 1996 horror film "Scream," tied the knot in 1999, separated in 2010 and finalized their divorce in 2013. They share an 18-year-old daughter, Coco.

When the couple decided to part ways, they did so civilly, something Arquette remains proud of to this day.

"We had a really great thing at the end," he told Cohen. “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," he added. "That’s what it’s really all about."

In 2012, Cox gushed to People of her ex, saying, "He’s my favorite person in the world ... He’s my best friend. No matter what happens in our future, he’s my very best friend."

Both Arquette and Cox have found love again since their split.

In 2015, Arquette married former entertainment reporter Christina McLarty, with whom he shares two children. Meanwhile, Cox has dated Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid since 2013. 

This article was originally published on TODAY.com