Will Arnett On 'Brutal' Amy Poehler Split: 'I Cried For An Hour' In My Car

Will Arnett is getting real about how difficult it was dealing with divorce in the public eye.

Arnett and ex-wife Amy Poehler's split had sparked an enormous amount of online commentary when they announced their separation in 2012 after nine years of marriage. They had often worked together, with Mindy Kaling even describing their relationship as the ideal in her bestselling memoir "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?"

In a new interview with The Guardian, the 51-year-old actor said the "excruciating" pain of his split from Poehler, 50, caused him to break down in tears on his way to set at the time.

"Just brutal, brutal, brutal," he said of their separation. "I was driving to the set one day and I pulled over to the side of the road and cried for an hour."

At the time of their breakup, the "BoJack Horseman" alum was filming Season 4 of "Arrested Development," which had been previously abruptly canceled by Fox in 2006.

Arnett credited the series' creator Mitch Hurwitz for helping make his pain something "hilarious and cathartic" for the show.

According to the actor, what made the breakup even more difficult at the time was the online commentary surrounding their relationship.

"People talk about you like they know you and they talk about your relationship as if they know what's going on," he told the outlet. "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, like, 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.'"

Over time, the family was able to move forward with peace, with Arnett noting that "you get on with it." He and Poehler continue to co-parent their sons Archie, 13, and Abel, 11.

The "Murderville" star said he feels his kids are "so lucky" that Poehler is their mother. Arnett added that he also considers himself lucky that they are "such a huge part of each other's lives, even more so than we were five years ago."

Arnett has since moved on with girlfriend Alessandra Brawn. They began dating in 2019 and welcomed their first child together, a boy named Alexander Denison, in June 2020, People reported.

Meanwhile, Poehler previously opened up about their divorce, which was finalized in 2016, in her 2014 memoir "Yes Please."

According to the actress, she didn't want to go into detail about her split from Arnett because it was "too sad and too personal." However, she praised her ex-husband as a father.

"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.