Cameron Diaz Shares How Therapy Plays Such a ‘Big’ Part in Her Family with Benji Madden

During an appearance on her brother-in-law, Joel Madden‘s Artist Friendly podcast, Diaz discussed the major role therapy plays in their family.

“So therapy is a big thing in our family, thank god,” Diaz said. “It’s what we depend on, so you have that commitment to work on it.”

Diaz explained that she and husband Benji utilize therapy as a way to keep themselves from doing the “same thing over and over again” while trying to figure out how to get a different result in any given issue. Instead, she says the couple uses therapy to self-reflect on why the action led to that outcome.

“Why didn’t it work? How can I make it work? What’s my part? What’s the other person’s work?” she reflected. “Let’s be self-aware and go into the next attempt a little bit more equipped to hopefully come out with a different outcome.”

Joel, meanwhile, shared a similar sentiments regarding therapy, adding that he and his wife Nicole Richie are also avid therapy users.

“Either resolve something or create a new understanding of a new process together,” the Good Charlotte singer said. “It’s like going into the gym and learning new moves, building on strength.”

Diaz also said that from perspective, both partners need to be fully committed to each other and their family in order to maintain a strong bond.

“It goes back to wanting to do it. You can’t be in a marriage and have a family if … both people are not 100 percent every day,” she shared. “Nobody can be 99 and the other one be 100.”

The Back in Action actress noted that even on a couple’s worst days, there has to be a solid foundation in place for them to go the distance.

“Even if you’re mad [at] each other and don’t want to see each other [or] sick of each other it’s still 100 percent commitment to the marriage and to the partnership and getting things in the family,” she said. “If it’s not 100 percent it just doesn’t work if one person is at a deficit.”

Diaz and the Good Charlotte rockstar got married in 2015 after nearly a year of dating, and share daughter Raddix, 4, and son Cardinal, 8 months.

While therapy has been the cornerstone to keeping their marriage and family strong, Diaz said the thing she’s “most grateful” for is meeting Benji when she did.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was older than [Benji] like the fact that I hadn’t found him before … I was out there a lot longer than he was,” Diaz recalled. “You know how much we’ve grown over the last decade together and how much we accomplished. I don’t know how either one of us would have done that without one another.”