Ben Stiller’s wife Christine Taylor finally reveals why she took the actor back after ‘challenging’ 5 year split

Christine Taylor opened up about her years-long separation from husband Ben Stiller and what led them to finally give their marriage another chance.

The Brady Bunch Movie actor, 54, left no stone unturned in a recent interview. McBride Rewind podcast, he admitted that this phase of his marriage to the Zoolander star was ‘challenging’.

“I think we just disagreed on a lot of things at that moment,” Taylor told host Josh McBride.

‘I can talk about this now… but right now, it was very difficult to come to this decision.

‘It wasn’t light. It wasn’t without heartbreak and really, even sadness, I didn’t imagine it would happen at a time like this and we needed to be able to work it out.’

The couple, who skipped a Knicks game to attend the Met Gala last month, married in 2000 and have two children, Ella, 24, and Quinlin, 20. They announced their separation in 2017.

Taylor told host Josh McBride about the couple’s decision to split in 2017: ‘I think we just disagreed on a lot of things at the time’; Stiller and Taylor photographed at the Met Gala on May 4

‘Despite everything, we were always in touch. We were parenting together. “We were spending time together as a family,” Taylor said.

The ‘good aspects’ of the pandemic served as a forced pause and allowed them to re-evaluate their relationship.

“If there was a silver lining for us during Covid, it was a little gift,” Taylor explained.

‘We all bonded with our children. At that time, our daughter was finishing high school and our son was finishing eighth grade. We were all at home and had nothing but time.

‘So Ben and I spent a lot of time working on ourselves with a therapist, and we logged on to Zoom, had our therapy sessions, and really found our way back,’ she said, adding: ‘I think that’s something people don’t like to talk about because it feels like failure.’

He continued: ‘By the way, if the right answer didn’t work out for us but we were able to figure it out in a very clear and focused way, then that’s great too.

‘Life moves so fast that we often don’t take the time to stop and say, “OK, she looked after her things, I looked after mine”… long-term marriages require a lot of work.’

Taylor stated that she and Stiller have emerged from this difficult time “truly stronger and better than ever.” And I feel really comfortable talking about it because I think it’s really important for people to feel like it’s okay.’

The Brady Bunch Movie actor, 54, said the ‘silver lining’ for them was the pandemic: ‘Ben and I spent a lot of time working on ourselves with a therapist’; taken in April

Stiller, who was seen with Taylor at the Knicks game in New York City in April, where Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner were sitting in the front row, had previously said that their marriage was now working because they accepted each other’s differences.

Taylor said that she and Stiller have emerged ‘truly stronger and better than ever’; the couple photographed in Los Angeles in September 2025

In a 2022 Esquire interview, Stiller confirmed that they reunited during the pandemic while living under the same roof with their children.

Having this space to talk without daily distractions allowed their relationships to repair in the right places.

‘We broke up and got back together and we’re happy about it. It’s been really great for all of us. “It was unexpected and one of the things that came out of the pandemic,” the actor shared.

He said their marriage works now because they accept each other’s differences and similarities.