Michael Strahan calls his acrimonious divorce 'the worst best thing to happen to me'

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Michael Strahan has called his divorce 'one of the worst best things that ever happened to me'.

The 42-year-old co-host of 'Live! with Kelly and Michael' and former NFL star opened up about his personal life in a special interview with Barbara Walters for ABC.

She quizzed him about his two divorces, his first from Wanda Hutchins, with whom he has two adult children, and his second from Jean Muggli, with whom he has 10-year-old twin girls.

He said he learned a lot from his famously acrimonious divorce from Muggli, whom he met in 1994 while she worked in a skincare salon in Manhattan. They married in 1999 and divorced in 2005.

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Opening up: Michael Strahan, the co-host of 'Live! with Kelly and Michael', said in an interview that aired on ABC on Sunday that he learned a lot from his divorce to ex-wife Jean Muggli

'Learning experience': Strahan, who was married to Muggli (right) for six years, said the experience taught him not to care what anybody thought. She had accused him of beating her - but a judge dismissed the claims

'It was one of the worst/best things that ever happened to me,' he said, adding that media coverage painted him as a cheater one day, then having a gay relationship with a friend the next.

When Muggli filed for divorce, she made numerous accusations against him, including that he had beat her, cheated on her and even recorded her sister undressing. A judge ultimately dismissed the claims.

'It let me get to the point where I had to learn not to care what anybody thought,' Strahan explained. 'So I also didn't want to say anything and fight back to the papers because that fed more into it.'

He added that it also taught him to focus on what was important: his daughters.

'I had these two little babies and I don't want my little ones to Google when they're older... and say, "Daddy, why did you say this about mommy?" I didn't want that.' he explained.

'It was more important for me to take it and deal with it as a father than to put my - to say something that could hurt my kids in the future.' 

The former New York Giants player also has a 23-year-old daughter, Tanita, and a 20-year-old son, Michael Jr., from his first marriage. 

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Split: Over the summer, he broke off his five-year engagement to Nicole Murphy, pictured left and right

Focus: Strahan said that he focused on his twin girls, who are now 10, during the tough divorce

He said their mother, Wanda Hutchins, whom he divorced in 1996, is still one of his best friends and continues to give him good advice on relationships.

'We were just kids having kids,' he said. 'For us, we were smart enough to turn that into a great friendship.'

Strahan spoke to Walters as part of her '10 Most Fascinating People of 2014' special, which aired on ABC on Sunday night.

Most recently, he called off his five-year engagement to Eddie Murphy's ex-wife, Nicole Murphy. The couple split this summer, citing conflicting schedules and distance.