Succession star Brian Cox explained in a new interview why living apart from his wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox, keeps their marriage strong
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“By keeping things separate, we are responsible for our own mess,” the actor said
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The couple wed in 2002 and welcomed two sons together
Brian Coxis sharing why "space" is the key to keeping his marriage to wife Nicole Ansari-Cox strong.
The 79-year-oldSuccessionstar opened up about his relationship with Ansari-Cox, 57, in a new interview withThe Times, explaining why the couple — who wed in Las Vegas in 2002 — prefer to live apart. In the U.K., they maintain completely separate homes that are a nine-minute walk apart in the Primrose Hill neighborhood of London, per the outlet. They have separate bedrooms at their two U.S. homes, one in Brooklyn and the other in upstate New York.
“By keeping things separate, we are responsible for our own mess,” Cox toldThe Times. “It’s as simple as that. Her space is very important for her, and my space is very important for me. I think if we’re thrown together, we feel locked together, and that’s not a good creative relationship."
He added: "You should be free."
The Scottish actor also credits couples therapy for the strength of their marriage. “Nicole gave up a lot for me. It was tricky for her, but she gave up a lot, and I feel that she needs to be honoured,” he said.
The pair first met when Ansari-Cox saw Cox performing as King Lear in Hamburg, Germany, in 1990, perThe Times. They chatted with each other at an afterparty and became a couple eight years later following a chance meeting in New York.
“We’re about to have our silver wedding,” noted Cox, who shares two sons — Orson, 24, and Torin, 21 — with Ansari-Cox. TheTroyactor is also father to daughter Margaret and son Alan, both of whom he welcomed with his second wife, Caroline Burt.
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Praising Ansari-Cox, Cox added, "She’s considerable, she is considerable. She’s one of the most generous and caring people."
"The problem with Nicole, and we discuss this, is she’s got too many friends," he continued. "At my age, I’m trying to get rid of them. Well, most of mine are dying off."
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During a 2023 appearance onLive with Kelly and Ryan, Cox reminisced about his 2002 wedding to his wife.
"Well, it's like, stuck in my brain," he said of their nuptials. "It was a very, very — my lovely wife and I decided to get married. We'd actually been apart for a while — she'd been traveling — and then we sat down and we said, 'Where do we go from here? Do we finish or do we go on?' And we thought, 'Well, let's go on and get married.' "
"I think she agreed," he recalled, before asking Ansari-Cox — who was seated in the show's audience at the time — for confirmation. "You agreed, didn't you, honey?"
The pair celebrated their nuptials at the Little White Chapel, and Cox recalled how the mother of their officiant played the piano and chose the theme fromBraveheartfor their walk down the aisle, not knowing that the actor is from Scotland.
Cox also revealed that he and Ansari-Cox initially did not agree on who would officiate their Vegas vows.
"Nicole, I think, was reasonably keen on the idea of Elvis," he explained. "I said, 'No [pretended to censor himself] way!' "
Elsewhere in his conversation withThe Times, the Golden Globe winner, who is set to turn 80 on June 1, revealed how hestays in fighting shape.
“Gym three times a week,” he said. “You really have to be responsible for your body, because it’s dying. You can’t give in to that.”
Cox also said he does all that he can to decrease his odds of developing dementia.
“Yes, you know, there’s all kinds of protocols I can take,” he explained. “I’m very careful about it, because I need to learn my lines to keep working.”
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