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See Ben Stiller & Christine Taylor's RARE Family Outing!
Along came growth.
Ben Stiller shed some light on his yearslong breakup from wife Christine Taylor and what ultimately brought them back together as a couple.
"When we separated, it was just having space to see what our relationship was, what my life felt like when we weren’t in that relationship, how much I loved our family unit," Stiller explained of their 2017 split in an interview with The New York Times published Jan. 11. "It was like three or four years that we weren’t together but we always were connected."
The Severance director added that, from his perspective, his separation from Taylor—with whom he shares Ella, 22, and Quinlin, 19—was never intended to be permanent.
"In my mind, I never didn’t want us to be together," Stiller—who married his Zoolander costar in 2000—said. "I don’t know where Christine was, you’d have to ask her, but COVID put us all together in the same house."
The Dodgeball actor pointed to being back under the same roof again starting in 2020 as a turning point in their relationship, which offered the then-estranged couple an opportunity to reconnect.
"It was almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together," Stiller shared. "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."
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Taylor had a similar perspective on their separation when she opened up about it a couple of years ago while reflecting on how quickly they moved at the beginning of their relationship over 20 years ago.
"We got married very quickly after meeting each other," she said on The Drew Barrymore Show in 2023. "We knew each other six months, got engaged, married within the year and had Ella that next year."
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"I think Ben and I both started to grow in different directions," Taylor mused. "And when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about or took lightly."
The Brady Bunch Movie actress added that "during that time apart, [they] got to know who [they] are" and "needed some time to figure that out," but they "always stayed a family unit and always continued to do things together."
When the pandemic hit and they moved back in with one another, Stiller and Taylor had "so much time to talk" with "no other distractions," which allowed them to lay it all out on the table.
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"I feel like when you've lived a lifetime with someone like we have—and we learned as we were going along—there's a freedom in that," she concluded. "There is a freedom in the comfort of this relationship and the commitment."
Keep reading for more about Stiller and Taylor's family.
BACKGRID
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.
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Father-Daughter Dates
Ella has often accompanied her father Ben to events over the years, like when she joined dad at the June 2023 Tribeca Fil 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 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.
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Working Together
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."
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Following In Her Parents' Footsteps
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," Christine 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."
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Calling Out Dad
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 he noted that it "didn't feel great" to hear Ella say that, Ben 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 actor 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."
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Not-So-Secret Swiftie
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."
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Taking a Break
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.
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Healthy Family Habits
Ben and Christine decided to adopt a plant-based lifestyle more than a decade ago. And now they're trying to 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 shared 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."
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Out of the Spotlight
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."
Ben and Christine have shared the projects they are passionate about with their kids, including Project A.L.S., which Christine sits on the board of directors for.
"For them to come out on a school night," Christine said, "have a little fun, dress up, take some pictures, but then learn about an incredible organization, that's huge."
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