Brian Austin Green has been getting candid about his co-parenting relationship with ex-wife Megan Fox.
On the latest episode of their podcast, Oldish, Green and his partner Shanna Burgess talked to Randy Spelling about how they have worked with the Transformers actor to co-parent the children she shares with Green — Journey River, seven, Bodhi Ransom, nine, and Noah Shannon, who turns 11 later this month. Burgess shares a son, Zane Walker, 15 months, with the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum.
Green did clarify that “it takes work” to develop a healthy dynamic and that it has been a “concerted effort.”
“You can’t just coast through parenting. Parenting is, you’re on your feet thinking, all day long, trying to make the best decisions you can in moments you don’t know what decision will work the best. It’s all trial and error,” he explained.
“I’ve learned having five kids, is different with every single child because every single one is a different person,” Green continued. “You have to figure out the methods that work the best for that person and will serve them the best. We have three kids in the house that are all about a year and a half apart and they’ve all been raised virtually the same way and they couldn’t be more different from each other. They’re absolutely different people.”
Green added that he, Fox, and Burgess “co-parent really well together.”
“When we need to, we communicate really well, we’re open to things. We don’t take things personally. It is my goal, and I think it’s her goal as well, that the kids are in as healthy an environment as they can be in,” he shared to Spelling.
“I’ve really come to the understanding and the realization within the last five years that I think people do a huge disservice in thinking they don’t want a separation or a divorce to affect their kids because it will. It will absolutely affect your kids,” he noted. “The part of it you have control over is how it affects your kids, whether it’s a positive experience and you co-parent with the other person well, or you make it as loving an experience as possible, or a very angry head-to-head, fighting constantly.”
Green said that the three of them go out of their way to avoid making the kids feel as though they are “stuck in the middle.” They decided that in light of personal disagreements, they must put their differences aside when necessary because “it always has to be about the kids.”
When Burgess’ relationship initially began becoming more serious, and she was starting to spend time with Green’s kids, she said on the podcast that she reached out to Fox via text to introduce herself. She noted, “I think she really appreciated that starting out with openness.”
“I always tried to be neutral in the beginning of our relationship, to not have some preconceived idea of who she was before I met her. I just wanted to get to know her for myself and we allowed that to happen,” Burgess added. “I think we co-parent really well. Again, it is always about the kids and what’s best for them. Sometimes, we are able to do things together.”
Green raved about Burgess and Fox’s “beautiful relationship,” explaining, “If they are at the school for an event, they’ll sometimes be in their own little spot talking for half an hour, completely on their own laughing and joking and having a great time.”
“She’s an awesome woman and she is a part of raising these beautiful children and simply because she’s an ex, there’s no need for me to have any resentment towards her. They had their experience and it has nothing to do with me. How it went down, what went down, it’s zero of my business. What is my business is being a part of creating a healthy, loving, open, and respectful environment for these kids,” Burgess concluded.
