Will Arnett Opens up on Divorce From Amy Poehler, Acknowledges 'Painful Couple of Years'

will arnett amy poehler divorce Will Arnett divorce Arrested Development Will Arnett children Alessandra Brawn Nick Kroll family breakup

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Feb 09, 10:14 pm

Photo: (Photo : Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix)

Comedian Will Arnett has opened up for the first time about his divorce from actress Amy Poehler in 2012, after nine years of marriage, and described the experience as a "painful couple of years" that he needed to go through.

In an interview with The Guardian, the actor recalled a time when he felt such excruciating pain during the divorce. He was filming the fourth season of "Arrested Development" and was driving to the set when he just had to pull by the side of the road to cry for an hour.

Arnett said that returning to the set of the comedy series when his marriage was ending was both a "hilarious and cathartic" experience. He used his work as a coping mechanism for the divorce that was pretty much in the public eye, given his and Poehler's status as two of Hollywood's most lauded comedy stars.

A Family Breakup is Not a Game

Arnett added that people had a lot of speculations about what happened to his marriage and talked as if they knew what went on in his relationship with Poehler. He took offense to one article he saw online, where the writer proclaimed to be on "Team Amy." He was appalled that some people treated the break-up of his family as a game.

The actor said that a divorce is brutal in every relationship, especially when children are involved. He has two kids with his ex-wife -- Archie, 13, and Abel, 11. Despite their high-profile parents, the kids have been kept pretty much out of the limelight with hardly any of their pictures in the tabloids.

Ten years since the divorce, Arnett has truly moved on and said that his sons are lucky to have Poehler as their mother.

"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," Arnett said.

In 2014, Poehler wrote in her memoir that she's proud of how she and Arnett have been taking care of their kids as co-parents after their divorce. She also said that she's grateful they have him as their father, per Vanity Fair.

Becoming a Dad Again

In May 2020, the comedian became a dad for the third time and welcomed his new son, Alexander, with girlfriend Alessandra Brawn. Now in his 50s, Arnett said that he has no plans to have other children because he knows he's facing the long road of raising three boys.

In 2018, the proud father told Us Weekly that there's no other experience in the world that can match watching his children grow up. He said he loves being a dad to his boys because he likes the same stuff as his kids. Arnett also wishes that his sons will grow up able to laugh at themselves and not take life too seriously.

Meanwhile, after her divorce from Arnett, Poehler was in a relationship with comedian Nick Kroll from 2013 to 2015. She has kept her dating life pretty much private and quiet since.