Will Arnett admits he cried for an hour after splitting from wife Amy Poehler

The actor called his break-up from his ex-wife "brutal"

Will Arnett on stage
(Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Will Arnett has revealed details about his split with ex-wife Amy Poehler, after nine years of marriage. 

"People talk about you like they know you and they talk about your relationship as if they know what's going on," he said in a new interview. 

"So imagine how weird that is. It's brutal with any relationship, and we have kids and, without getting into specifics, you then see stuff online. This one journalist wrote, 'I'm team Amy.' I'm like, 'You're a grown person. What are you talking about? This is a breakup. This is a family. This isn't some game.'"

Will Arnett

(Image credit: Amy Sussman / Staff)

The actor, who is currently starring in the Netflix comedy series Murderville, also revealed that, right after the divorce was made official, he had a very hard time dealing with it all. He recalled the time he was driving to the set of Arrested Development but ended up pulling over to the side of the road and cried for an hour. "[It was] just brutal, brutal, brutal," he told The Guardian.

Fast forward about a decade, and the actor reflects "you get on with it." "It's been almost 10 years and my kids are so lucky that Amy is their mother and I'm so lucky that we're such a huge part of each other's lives, even more so than we were five years ago," he says, mentioning sons Archie, 13, and Abel, 11, whom the two actors co-parents. 

Will is also father to Alexander Denison, whom he had with girlfriend Alessandra Brawn in 2020.

Will Arnett and Amy Poehler

(Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Staff)

For her part, Amy, 50, addressed their split in her 2014 memoir Yes Please. "I will say a few things. I am proud of how my ex-husband, Will, and I have been taking care of our children; I am beyond grateful he is their father; and I don't think a [nearly] ten-year marriage constitutes failure. 

That being said, getting a divorce really sucks," she wrote in the best-selling book. "Any painful experience makes you see things differently. It also reminds you of the simple truths that we purposely forget every day or else we would never get out of bed. Things like, nothing lasts forever and relationships can end. The best that can happen is you learn a little more about what you can handle and you stay soft through the pain. Perhaps you feel wiser. Maybe your experience can be of help to others."

Anna Rahmanan

Anna Rahmanan is a New York-based writer and editor who covers culture, entertainment, food, fashion and travel news. Anna’s words have appeared on Time Out New York, the Huffington Post, Fortune, Forbes, Us Weekly, Bon Appetit and Brooklyn Magazine, among other outlets.