Brian Austin Green has learned plenty of lessons from his rocky coparenting relationship with ex Vanessa Marcil.
“There are two sides to all of it, and looking back on it, there were absolute mistakes made on both sides because we were young and new parents and didn’t understand,” Green, 50, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, September 21. “There’s a part of me that wishes I could go back and fix things, of course, but then there’s also a part of me that knows that if I hadn’t experienced exactly what I experienced in parenting, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
While the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum didn’t want to “pat [him]self on the back” for his remarks, he noted that his failures have taught him “way more” than his successes.
“In my failures, it’s forced me to look at things and come up with different ways of doing things and different ways of accomplishing things that I want,” Green explained to Us. “And I grew so much from that situation. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best situation for Kassius growing up, and I’ll always regret that side of it, but [I want to] make something positive out of something that was difficult. That’s the only thing you can do in life.”
Green and Marcil, 54, welcomed their only child together, son Kassius, in 2002 shortly before they split. Green recently detailed their “difficult” coparenting dynamic during an episode of “Old·ish,” the new podcast he hosts with girlfriend Sharna Burgess and pal Randy Spelling.
“For me, it was really for the purpose of [sharing my example] of both things. People are going through good experiences and they’re going through tough experiences with it,” Green — who also coparents three sons with ex-wife Megan Fox — told Us of the podcast episode. “I don’t know if [‘blessed’ is] the right word for it, but I’ve been blessed to have both experiences, so I can really sort of take somebody step-by-step through it all. That episode was not in any way to bash anyone or speak negatively about somebody. … For me, it was cathartic because I honestly feel like, ‘OK, I’m done. [Kassius] is grown and that experience was what it was, all the good and the bad of it and the tough of it. And so, now it’s time to move on.’”
Green acknowledged that there are “two sides to every story,” and he was simply sharing his perspective. “Coparenting [is] trying to find a successful way of blending the two sides,” he continued. “It’s not about my experience compared to yours and trying to force a child to choose a team. It’s about respecting both sides, understanding that there are two sides to it and then finding a happy middle ground, where you two can function together effectively as parents.”
Green started dating Burgess, 38, in 2020. The Dancing With the Stars pro was quickly forced to figure out how to navigate his blended family before they welcomed a son of their own, Zane, in 2022.
“Going into it, I was very present and aware that I didn’t want to insert myself into these kids’ lives if I didn’t feel like it could be a long-term permanent thing,” Burgess told Us on Thursday. “And I took my time very slowly and carefully with them and let them come to me and didn’t push anything on them and didn’t have an agenda going in. It was just to get to know them and have a really good time and be a good friend.”
She continued: “As it organically grew, our bond just got stronger and stronger and I knew more and more each time how much I wanted this to be a forever thing, to be an endgame thing [and] how much I wanted these kids to be in my life as much as I wanted [Brian] to be in my life.”
Green, Burgess and Spelling, 44, are sharing more of their relationship and coparenting truths on their iHeartPodcasts show.
“We went into this knowing that we wanted to be vulnerable and transparent so we can give people that opportunity to see, ‘Oh wow, the things that I’m going through aren’t just me. I’m not on an island of one,’” Burgess told Us. “Like Bri likes to say, ‘There’s almost a community of people experiencing things like this and you find support in that in just being seen.’”
