Ben Stiller revealed the impact that his 2017 separation from Christine Taylor had on him and why he didn’t actually think they would end up back together.
There’s something about getting back together.
And Ben Stiller knows that firsthand. More than three years after his breakup with wife Christine Taylor, the Zoolander costars reconciled during the pandemic—and the reunion is something Stiller admits didn’t think would be possible.
“I didn’t expect we were going to get back together,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Feb. 5. “But when we broke up, there was a part of me that wasn’t ready to just give up on it.”
Ben, 59, and Christine, 53, got married in 2000, welcoming kids Ella, 22, and Quinlin, 19 before separating in 2017. And for Ben, a major part of their reconciliation was inspired by his late parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara’s decades-long romance and working relationship.
“Probably a certain amount of that is having watched my parents,” he shared. “And I love Christine, I love my family, and I was not ready to just go, ‘OK, enough of this.’”
“I also really love hanging out with my family and Christine and having fun together,” the Along Came Polly star said. “So, I’m happy that I didn’t totally miss the boat on that.”
While he is aware of the things that made their reconciliation possible, Ben admits that working alongside his wife was one of the driving factors of their split.
“You start making movies, and if they don’t go well, that would affect me,” Ben—who has starred in four films with his wife—said. “Sometimes I have to be pulled from it.”
Ben has previously shared insight into his and Christine’s reconciliation, noting it came a year into the pandemic after they decided to continue living together in New York City amid the lockdowns.
“It was almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together,” Ben shared with The New York Times in a Jan. 11 interview. “But I’m so grateful for it, and I think not that many people do come back together when they separate.”
“There’s nothing like that, when you come back,” he continued. “You have so much more appreciation for what you have, because we know we could not have it.”
Keep reading to look back on Ben and Christine’s love story…
Reunited
Married since 2000, Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor broke up in 2017. However, they never filed for divorce and, after to quarantining together with their kids Ella and Quinlin during the pandemic, they reconciled for good.
Ella has often accompanied her father Ben to events over the years, like when she joined dad at the June 2023 Tribeca Film Festival debut of the short film Let Liv, which her mom Christine stars in. For the outing, the trio coordinated in different black outfits.
Previously, Ella served as her dad’s plus-one at the 2022 Emmys, the 2018 premiere of Free Solo, the 2017 premiere of The Meyerowitz Stories and the opening night of the Broadway musical Groundhog Day.
In 2019, the duo went to the 2019 Golden Globes together to support Escape to Dannemora, the Showtime miniseries that earned Ben a nomination for Outstanding Directing.
Ben opened up about his experience working with Ella on the set of Escape to Dannemora, telling E! he was “very proud” of his daughter.
“I was very happy it went well,” the Zoolander actor said. “She showed me a lot of respect, which I appreciated because with a teenage daughter you want to be like, ‘Don’t be like how we are at home! Let’s pretend we’re actually nice to each other!’ No, it was really a super positive experience for both of us.”
In addition to her small role in Escape to Dannemora, Ella has also made appearances in Hubie Halloween and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
As Ben told E! in 2019, Ella “seems to have a desire to explore” an acting career.
Christine also spoke about Ella’s decision, telling Us Weekly in 2018 that she never “discouraged” her from following in her parents’ footsteps.
“She came out of the womb with a mission, and I was never going to get in her way,” The Brady Bunch Movie alum explained. “She is a very strong-minded, strong-willed young lady, and she loves it. Obviously she was born into the world, but I think living in New York City, she has been exposed to so many incredible things and shows and so … she has the bug. There’s nothing you can do about it, but I did not encourage it.”
Ben previously revealed that Ella had a conversation with him about “not being there” during her childhood due to his career.
“She’s pretty articulate about it, and sometimes it’s stuff that I don’t want to hear. It’s hard to hear,” he explained to Esquire. “Because it’s me not being there in the ways that I saw my parents [actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara] not being there. I had always thought, ‘Well, I won’t do that.’”
While Ben noted that it “didn’t feel great” to hear Ella say that, he said it was “important to acknowledge” her feelings: “But then it’s that thing that, like, I was trying to navigate my own desire to fulfill the hopes and dreams I had, too.”
The Severance director went on to say that Ella and her brother Quinlin were never keeping notes on his absences due to work, they just wanted to spend quality time with their dad.
“What I’ve learned is that your kids are not keeping score on your career,” he explained. “It would be solipsistic to think that my kids actually care about that. They just want a parent who’s emotionally present and supportive of them. That’s probably what they want more than for me to be going off and pushing the bounds of my creativity.”
During an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Ben revealed Ella had turned him into a major Taylor Swift fan after she made him listen to the singer while he was teaching her how to drive.
“What really helped her was if we just played her favorite artist on the iPhone, and we just played Taylor Swift,” he explained. “I was a fan, but I think now I’m a total Swiftie.”
Taylor’s music “would calm her, and it would calm me,” Ben shared before going on to prove just how big of a fan he’s become. “We got into the later stuff—Folklore, Evermore. ‘Cardigan,’ ‘Betty’ and ‘August’ all being about the same love triangle but from different points of view. And the characters are named after Ryan Reynolds‘ and Blake Lively‘s kids. And then the ‘All Too Well’ 10-minute Taylor’s version from the vault.”
After filming Tropic Thunder with Ben in 2007, Christine chose to take a break from acting to focus on raising their kids.
“It never felt like a big decision for me,” Christine said during an appearance on The Morning Call in 2010. “When I had Ella, my whole world changed. I couldn’t believe how much love I had for this little creature. I wanted to be a part of it all. I didn’t want to miss anything, and with Ben working as much as he does, I felt it was important for one of us to be the stability in the family.”
Ben told Parade in 2016 that he felt “very fortunate” that Christine made that decision.
Ben and Christine decided to adopt a plant-based lifestyle more than a decade ago and inspire their kids to do the same.
“Ben and I make these green drinks in the morning and they look at us like it’s from another planet,” she told People in 2012. “I joke, ‘Just join the party! Don’t complain so much, just join us.’”
The Search Party actress went on to detail Ella and Quinlin’s differing tastes, saying, “My daughter loves veggies but doesn’t love fruit. My son loves fruit and doesn’t love veggies.”
Still, Christine wasn’t giving up hope. “It’s that thing where your parents aren’t cool for a while and then suddenly they are,” she explained. “We just kind of plant the seeds.”
While Ella often attends events with her parents, Quinlin rarely makes public appearances, though he did attend the Project A.L.S. Benefit in 2018 with his family.
“This is his first event. I think he’s just having fun with it,” Christine told Us Weekly at the time. “Last year, our daughter came to the event for the first time and she encouraged him to come this year, and being able to make it fun and again the extended family that we’ve built and I think we’ve seen each other for 20 years and we’ve all watched our kids grow up.”
Supporting Causes Together
Quinlin also attended the Project ALS 25th Anniversary Gala in 2023, and Ben and Christine have shared the causes they are passionate about with their kids.
“For them to come out on a school night,” Christine, who sits on the board of directors for the organization, added to Us Weekly in 2018, “have a little fun, dress up, take some pictures, but then learn about an incredible organization, that’s huge.”
Source: www.eonline.com