Beverly Hills 90210 actor Brian Austin Green has offered a rare glimpse into his complicated relationship with ex-fiancée Vanessa Marcil, describing their split over two decades ago as "extremely tumultuous" during a recent podcast appearance.
Candid Podcast Revelations
The 52-year-old actor opened up about his past relationships during Tuesday's episode of the Inside Of You podcast with host Michael Rosenbaum. Green, who recently reunited with another former partner Tiffani Thiessen thirty years after their breakup, didn't hold back when discussing his history with Marcil.
When Rosenbaum questioned whether Green maintains good relationships with all his exes, the actor responded with a simple laugh and "No" before elaborating on his difficult separation from the Las Vegas actress.
"It was a very tumultuous separation because you have this thing in your head of like, you want to win," Green explained. "You want to be the smarter of the two. You want to be acknowledged for that. So you've got these unrealistic expectations and both of us did. So it was extremely tumultuous."
Relationship History and Co-parenting Challenges
Green and Marcil first crossed paths on the set of Beverly Hills, 90210 and dated from 1999 through 2003. The former couple share 23-year-old son Kassius, whose upbringing has been marked by what Green described as significant co-parenting drama and legal disputes following their separation.
The actor reflected on what he's learned from that challenging experience, stating: "I learned a lot from my previous relationship with Kassius' mom."
Since their split, Green has moved on to other high-profile relationships. He dated Transformers actress Megan Fox beginning in 2004 when she was 18 and he was 30. The couple married in 2010 and divorced in 2021, sharing three children: Noah, 13, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, nine.
Green is now engaged to professional dancer Sharna Burgess, with whom he welcomed son Zane, three, in 2022.
Different Approach to Co-parenting
During the podcast, Green contrasted his co-parenting relationship with Fox versus his experience with Marcil. He revealed that he and Fox made a conscious decision to handle their separation differently for the sake of their children.
"We really made a decision at the point when we separated, we can't keep this from affecting our kids, but it's up to us how it affects our kids," Green shared. "It's going to no matter what. It sucks for kids when the parents separate and all that."
Regarding his current dynamic with Marcil, Green expressed a more resigned approach: "Kass is 23 now and so the last thing I want to do is have him deal with any sort of s***. So, I just stay as far away from that situation as I can with his mom and go, 'We started something poorly that I don't think will ever fix itself. Let's just chalk it up to it was a learning lesson.'"
Green described his relationship with Fox as now being "great," though he acknowledged it took time to reach that point. The Transformers actress recently welcomed another child, Saga, with Machine Gun Kelly in March of this year.
"We're not going to all of a sudden just be great friends as we're co-parenting," Green said pragmatically. "We stopped being together because we didn't get along as well as we did when we first did, so let's take that expectation out of it and resign to the fact that, listen, I only care about the health and wellness of my kids."
Past Comments and Ongoing Tensions
This isn't the first time Green has spoken publicly about his challenging relationship with Marcil. Back in May on his Oldish podcast, he labeled their past relationship as "toxic."
"I mean, the relationship that I had with Vanessa was very toxic in that way. Like, it wasn't a loving, caring relationship," he revealed at the time.
Green also connected his relationship patterns to his upbringing, explaining that his mother had "smothered him" growing up, which led him to seek the "complete opposite" in romantic partners.
"I had some major missteps because of that," he admitted. "To a fault sometimes, just everything was about me. And then with Vanessa, it was not that at all, but it was masked in this is a relationship where that absolutely exists."
The co-parenting drama between Green and Marcil has continued over the years. In 2023, Green claimed that Marcil prevented him from seeing their son Kassius during his health struggles with vertigo. Meanwhile, Marcil has previously alleged that she raised Kassius alone and that Green took her to court for years requesting child support - claims which Green has denied.
Marcil also made allegations in 2018 that both Green and then-wife Megan Fox had "cut Kass out of their lives," though she later revealed that Fox apologized for her role in their family drama.
In a social media exchange last year, Marcil came to Fox's defense while commenting on Green's current relationship with Burgess. "She has apologized to both me and our child," Marcil wrote of Fox. "She stated she is 'disgusted' by her behavior. However, it wasn't her job to keep a grown man/biological parent in his son's life. That's on him."
Despite the years of tension, Green's recent comments suggest he's found peace with the situation, viewing it as a valuable learning experience rather than seeking resolution for what he believes may be unfixable.
