Courteney's friendly ghost 'MATTHEW VISITS ME'

The actor tells how her late co-star is still there for her

Thanks to her role as chef Monica in Friends, Courteney Cox will remain forever young to her legions of fans around the world. But as she counted down the days to her 60th birthday, there was no wistful yearning to turn back the clock. On the contrary!

"The place I'm in right now is the happiest I've ever been," the star, who celebrated her milestone birthday on June 15, shares.

"There's a lot of things that are not great about getting older, but there are also a lot of great things. I take more chances. I just go for things more."

Ever since landing her role on Friends in 1994, Courteney has lived in the public eye. At times, she admits, that has been painful like when her engagement to Snow Patrol rocker Johnny McDaid, 47, fell apart in 2015.

But the pair subsequently reunited and Courteney is now shouting her joy from the rooftops and more than willing to share the blame for what happened in their relationship.

"It was really intense," she admits. "We broke up in therapy. I didn't know it was coming. We went to this therapist to talk about our boundaries, what we could and couldn't accept about each other.

"Instead, he just broke up within the first minute and I was like, 'What?!' 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."

After the split, Courteney returned to the same therapist on her own.