Christine Taylor Reveals Why She and Ben Stiller Really Separated: We Grew in ‘Different Directions’

A period of personal growth. Christine Taylor opened up about why she and husband Ben Stiller separated — and revealed what led them back to one another.

"We got married very quickly after meeting each other," the Hey Dude alum, 51, explained during a Tuesday, March 7, appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. "We knew each other six months, got engaged, were married within a year, then had Ella the next year."

Taylor and the Meet the Parents actor, 57, tied the knot in 2000 after meeting the previous year. They later welcomed Ella, now 20, and son Quinn, 17. The couple separated in 2017 but later reconciled after quarantining together amid the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020.

"Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both started to grow in different directions," Taylor explained, recalling what led to their split. "And when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about or took lightly. We were at this impasse of, 'Let's figure this out, what's best at this chapter in our lives?' That's going back three or four years."

During their separation, Stiller and his estranged wife remained amicable — and spent time working on themselves.

"[In] that time apart we got to know who we are," the Brady Bunch Movie star explained to host Drew Barrymore. "I think we have these growth spurts, even as adults. And we needed time to figure that out. We always stayed a family unit."

Their bond strengthened during the global health crisis of 2020, and in February 2022, Stiller confirmed that the pair had reconciled. "It’s been really wonderful for all of us," the comedian told Esquire at the time. "Unexpected, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic."

Taylor, for her part, explained that the extra time at home gave her and Stiller the time and space they needed to work on their relationship. "We all ended up in our house together with two teenagers and we found this way back," she told the Never Been Kissed actress, 48. "We had so much time to talk, there were no other distractions. ... It just happened organically."

Earlier this year, the twosome revealed that their relationship began as a "rebound" after they both ended other romances. “We weren’t taking it seriously,” Stiller said during a January episode of Taylor's “Hey Dude … The 90s Called!” podcast.

After the pair connected while filming a pilot together, the Tropic Thunder director asked Taylor to come hang out with him in New York while he filmed Keeping the Faith — and the rest is history.

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"I ended up going and staying the entire summer," Taylor recalled.