Continued from page 1

Together by Design

By Karen S. Schneider

Thursday October 16, 2003 01:00 PM EDT

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Conversely, her own tranquility with Arquette, 32, is evident in the clean lines of their Kip Kelly-designed house, complete with glass walls, infinity pool ... and piles of rumpled shirts and pants?

Yup. Arquette swears that the woman who is almost as notorious a neatnik as her Friends alter ego, Monica, "leaves her clothes laying around the house."

"Okay," counters Cox, "but David doesn't do the dishes after he's cooked. He hasn't quite learned the art of follow-through." Her husband begs to differ. "Not true," he insists with a laugh. "I happen to believe in a good long soaking."



Like Fred and Ginger – or Frick and Frack – Cox and Arquette have mastered the art of staying close without stepping on each other's toes. But their challenges as a couple have been far more complex than her finding a spot for the 4-ft.-high wooden letters from a 1920s nightclub that her flea-market-fiend husband recently carted home. Even before they exchanged vows in San Francisco's historic Grace Cathedral before some 250 family and friends including Aniston (and then-beau Brad Pitt) and the rest of the close-knit Friends cast four years ago, Cox and Arquette had faced hurdles, including his drug use and the death of his mother in 1997.

Since they wed, they've also struggled with the deaths of both of their fathers, and their ongoing attempts to have a baby – including in vitro fertilization. "I get pregnant pretty easily," says Cox, "but I have a hard time keeping them." Despite having miscarried "quite a few times," she says, she and David "bounce back pretty quickly. I don't say it's a walk in the park. But what are you going to do? We just try again."

– TODD GOLD in Los Angeles

This is an online excerpt of PEOPLE magazine's cover package, on newsstands Friday.