May 31, 2026, 12:55 p.m. ET
Christine Taylor is looking back on her difficult, but temporary, separation from husband Ben Stiller.
The “Brady Bunch Movie” star, 54, opened up on the “McBride Rewind” podcast in a May 26 episode about separating from Stiller in 2017 before reconciling several years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I met Ben when I was 28 years old. I really feel like, you know, kids always have growth spurts, and you have different chapters and stages in your life, and I feel that’s also true for adults,” she said, adding that in “that moment in time for us, we were just not on the same page with a lot of things” but were “working so hard to try to make it fit, and make it right.”
She added, “Really, when we just zoomed out on it, it was like, let’s just put a pause here. … In the moment, it was very difficult to come to that decision. It was not without a heavy heart, and feeling really even dejected at the time, of like, ‘This is not how I imagined it was going to be, and we should have been able to work it out.’ I mean, it was challenging.”
But Taylor noted that she and Stiller were “always in contact” during their separation. The couple, who tied the knot in 2000, share two children: Ella, 24, and Quinlin, 20.
During the pandemic, Stiller, 60, Taylor and their children quarantined together, which led the actors to reconcile. Speaking on “McBride Rewind,” Taylor noted she and Stiller spent “a lot of time just working on us” during this time by attending virtual therapy, and they ultimately “found the way back.”
“We came out of it and have been really stronger and better than ever,” she said.
Stiller previously opened up about the separation in his 2025 documentary “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.” The movie was directed by the “Zoolander” actor and focused on his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. An exploration of his parents’ marriage led Stiller to also examine his own.
“When we separated, my feeling was, ‘Oh, I’m failing at this, and look at my parents,’ ” Stiller shared in the movie. “They have this incredible, 50-plus year marriage, and I can’t live up to that.'”
Speaking on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in 2023, Taylor said it was crucial for her and Stiller to have time apart to “get to know who we are,” but she noted they “always stayed a family unit.”
