Debra Messing’s NBC series, Smash, may not have earned a Season 3 renewal, but things seem to be going pretty well in the actress’ personal life. She’s currently dating her Smash co-star Will Chase, and even though she did go through a divorce with longtime partner Daniel Zelman, the two seem to be working things out to still maintain a familial structure for the sake of their son, Roman.
The 44-year-old actress is speaking out in the June issue of MORE Magazine to talk about new hopes as well as the end of her longtime relationship. Messing actually seems a little wistful when she explains why things didn’t work out.
"We both wanted it to last forever, and it's a sad thing that it wasn't able to go the course…Part of me will always contend with guilt that I wasn't able to give my son the fantasy that my parents were able to give me."
As noted by People, the actress and her writer husband were often on opposite schedules and were living on separate coasts for three years. They continually tried different arrangements and “compromises,” but eventually came to the conclusion that splitsville was a better arrangement. She says the divorce hasn’t changed their parenting skills, however.
"Now we are co-parenting beautifully … We had Thanksgiving together. In my mind, we will be a nuclear family forever.”
You know, just a regular old nuclear family, with an extra boyfriend attached. Seriously though, divorce is always tough, even if you manage a secret separation that the media and public don’t know about for almost a year. I’m sure Messing would have liked to have kept that bit of her personal life private forever, but it’s actually pretty refreshing that she is taking an honest approach to explaining the couple’s problems and why they couldn’t fix them. Here’s hoping that things between Messing and Zelman stay chummy and they can continue the tradition of doing family activities together, even if they are no longer a couple.
