B&B’s Scott Clifton Opens Up About His Separation
In February, THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL star Scott Clifton (Liam) announced that he and his wife, Nikki, had separated after ten years of marriage. The actor recently sat down with Maurice Benard for an episode of the GENERAL HOSPITAL star’s State of Mind series, and opened up about the end of his marriage and how he and Nikki are working hard to co-parent their son, Ford.
“We’re separated, but I think it’s the best decision we ever made,” Clifton admitted, adding that he and Nikki still have a close relationship — even if it’s not a romantic one. “She’s still my best friend.”
To try to make the separation as easy as possible on their 7-year-old, Clifton got a second home just a stone’s throw away from Nikki’s. “When we separated, we got to buy another house,” said Clifton, acknowledging how privileged he and his ex are to be able to do so. “Our son just kind of gets to go back and forth between the two,” said Clifton. “They’re very, very close. Just a five-minute drive from each other.”
The close proximity has enabled the B&B actor and Nikki to continue spending time with Ford as a family. “We’ll have family dinner over at her house some nights, and then she’ll come over and we’ll have family dinner at my house,” he shared. “So we still create this kind of family unit.”
Although Clifton didn’t go into details about what led to the dissolution of their marriage, he did share that he and Nikki approached their relationship differently. “We were just not compatible romantically,” he confessed, apologizing to Nikki. “We loved differently. It took us way too long to figure that out. But once we did, things got better.”
In fact, Clifton admitted, it was Nikki who was brave enough to end their romantic partnership. “It was her who said, ‘I release you. I can’t love you the way that you deserve to be loved, and you can’t love me.’”
Understandably, Clifton was hurt at first. But after some time passed, he was able to see that Nikki’s decision “was such a kind, rational, compassionate thing for her to do.”
In retrospect, he thanks her every day for making such a hard decision. “Our relationship is so good now,” he reveals. “At the end of the day, everything you try to do is so that you raise happy or healthy” kids.
It sounds like Clifton and his ex are definitely on the right path to making co-parenting work successfully!
