Brian Austin Green knows the secret to co-parenting.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum revealed he has one rule for successfully sharing parenting duties with ex-wife Megan Fox.
“The number one,” Brian exclusively told E! News at Steel City Comic Con April 13, “is always make sure that everything is centered around the experience of the kids.” (For more with Brian, tune into E! News tonight, April 15, at 11:00 p.m.)
And the 50-year-old—who shares sons Noah Shannon, 11, Bodhi Ransom, 10, and Journey River, 7, with the Transformers actress—explained that his condition entails accepting there’s no avoiding the changes that come with a breakup.
“People make a mistake of thinking that they’re gonna do things so the separation doesn’t affect the kids and that’s—of course it’s gonna affect the kids,” he noted. “The only choice you have is how it affects the kids.”
And that’s not to say putting the kids first is always easy for Brian and Megan, who split in 2021 after 11 years of marriage. In fact, he admitted that sometimes it’s important to “pick your battles.”
“The person that you were with that you’re now separated from, you guys are separated for a reason,” Brian continued, “because you didn’t get along. So, you can’t expect to then get along after the fact in raising your kids. So, you have to decide, ‘OK, it’s not about us getting along anymore. It’s about us co-parenting, which is a totally different situation.’”
As for Megan, she previously shared a similar sentiment on co-parenting with Brian, who also shares son Kᴀssius Lijah, 21, with ex-girlfriend Vanessa Marcil and son Zane Walker, 22 months, with fiancée Sharna Burgess.
“I think it’s really important when people separate to never ever disparage the other parent or even in a pᴀssive aggressive way, make remarks,” Megan said during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show last fall. “I don’t let anything in my energy like that when I’m around my kids because if I don’t accept and love their father I’m rejecting a part of them because he’s a part of who they are always.
“Noting that she always makes a point to “be very loving with him and about him” and be “very accepting,” the 37-year-old—who is engaged to Machine Gun Kelly—added, “That gives your children the freedom to be happy because they don’t have to carry the burden of a war between parents.”
