Will Arnett Says It Was 'Brutal' to See Amy Poehler Divorce Play Out In Public

Speaking with The Guardian, the actor shared how it felt to go through a very public split from ex-wife Amy Poehler after they separated in 2012, around the same time Netflix revived "Arrested Development" for a production-challenged fourth season. Looking back, he admitted "the last couple years have been so weird for me," but also seemed content with where he's at now.

"People talk about you like they know you and they talk about your relationship as if they know what’s going on," he said when asked what it was like to have his separation from Poehler splashed across the news at the time. "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.'"

The two announced their split in 2012, before finalizing their divorce in 2016. They share kids Archie, 13, and Abel, 11.

"You get on with it. It's been almost 10 years," he said about the situation now, "and my kids are so lucky that Amy is their mother and 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."

As The Guardian noted, Arnett went back into production on "Arrested Development" in 2013, seven years after it was canceled by Fox and shortly after the split. Much has been said about how filming went for the revival, with many of the cast members filming their material separately on green screens due to scheduling conflicts. Each episode also revolved around a single character, which led to a very different experience for all involved and viewers at home.

Arnett said the shoot was "almost excruciating … Just brutal, brutal, brutal" and recalled pulling over on the side of the road while driving to set one day, where he "cried for an hour."

"You know, I think there were a lot of things in those seasons that did not work. We weren't all together, for a start," he added of the experience. "But there were moments when we were together and I was crying with laughter, and it was worth it for that. Maybe it was like a very expensive reunion for all of us."

As he put his personal pain into his work on "Arrested Development," "BoJack Horseman" and "Flaked," Arnett added that, "it was a painful couple of years, but I had to go through it, I guess."

Poehler addressed the divorce in her 2014 memoir, "Yes Please," in which she said she was "proud" and "beyond grateful" to have Arnett as her sons' father. At the time, she said "getting a divorce sucks" -- and added, "I don't think a 10-year marriage constitutes failure."