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‘Succession’ actor Brian Cox, 79, says living apart from his wife keeps their relationship strong

“Succession” star Brian Cox, 79, says traditional living arrangements don’t work for his marriage.

In an interview with The Times published on Friday, the actor said having separate spaces has helped his marriage last over two decades.

Cox has been married to Nicole Ansari-Cox, who is 22 years his junior, since 2002, and the couple has two sons together. It is Cox’s third marriage, and he has two kids from a previous relationship.

In the US, the couple maintains separate bedrooms across their homes in Brooklyn and upstate New York, Cox said. In the UK, they live in different homes within walking distance of each other in north London.

“By keeping things separate, we are responsible for our own mess,” Cox said. “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… You should be free.”

This isn’t the first time Cox has spoken about his living arrangements with his wife.

In July 2025, he told The Times that living separately in London is a natural extension of having separate bedrooms in their US homes.

“But when I go to her flat I always feel I’m imposing. She said, ‘Come, you’ve got to come over. Why don’t you come?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s a long walk …’ Then I go and I’m fine. But I’m always a bit nervous when I go there,” Cox said.

Cox is among a number of celebrities who have embraced having separate spaces with their partners.

In 2022, “Today” host Carson Daly says getting a “sleep-divorce” has been the best thing to happen to his marriage.

In February, Barbara Corcoran said that getting a second bedroom prompted her to love her husband “twice as much.”

In March, Sarah Michelle Gellar said that having “one bedroom, two bathrooms” has been key to keeping her marriage to Freddie Prinze Jr. strong.




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Aditi Bharade

Brian Niccol said he wants Starbucks to feel like the coffee shop from ‘Friends’

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol wants his cafés to feel like Central Perk from the TV show ‘Friends.’

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, released Monday, Niccol spoke about his “Back to Starbucks” plan, a yearlong process of turning around the brand after several quarters of declining sales amid a deteriorating customer experience.

He told Alan Murray, president of The WSJ Leadership Institute, that the name “Back to Starbucks” helped to give his baristas a “visual understanding” of the café experience he was trying to achieve.

“Because everybody remembers a ‘Friends’ episode, or that coffee house experience, by me saying ‘Back to Starbucks,’ that kind of hearkens that memory of what I would call the barista-customer connection that we’re after,” Niccol said.

The coffee shop from the ‘Friends,’ Central Perk, was a pivotal set piece throughout the sitcom’s 10-season run. Almost every episode featured the café as the characters’ favorite haunt.

The cast was often filmed sitting on Central Perk’s mismatched sofas and chairs, ordering coffee and baked goods, and making small talk with the awkward manager, Gunther.

Niccol’s comparison of Central Perk to Starbucks comes after he spent more than a year rebranding Starbucks, from what customers and employees said was a soulless conglomerate chain, to a warm and inviting third place. He took the top job in September 2024.

He simplified the menu, introduced more seating and tables in the cafés, offered free coffee and tea refills, brought back the condiment station and ceramic mugs, and encouraged baristas to write small notes on coffee cups to interact with their customers.

However, its sales have yet to see a strong recovery. It reported a 1% increase in its global comparable sales for the fourth quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year. Its stock price is down more than 6% since the start of the year.




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