Christine Taylor Opens Up About Her Marriage to Ben Stiller
Christine Taylor, the actress known for her role in The Brady Bunch Movie, has shared insights into her long-term separation from her husband, Ben Stiller. The couple, who married in 2000 and have two children, Ella, 24, and Quinlin, 20, announced their separation in 2017. However, they have since found a way to reconnect and rebuild their relationship.
During an interview on the McBride Rewind podcast, Taylor reflected on the challenges of that period. She described it as a difficult time when the couple was not aligned on many aspects of their lives. “I think at that moment in time for us we weren’t on the same page with a lot of things,” she said. “It was not light. 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.”
Despite the separation, Taylor emphasized that the couple maintained a strong co-parenting relationship. “Through it all, we were always in contact. We were co-parenting together. We were spending time together as a family,” she explained. This commitment to their children played a crucial role in keeping their connection alive.
The Pandemic as a Turning Point
The pandemic provided an unexpected opportunity for the couple to reevaluate their relationship. Taylor described it as a “silver lining” that allowed them to pause and focus on their marriage. “If there’s a silver lining for us during Covid, that was the little gift,” she said.
During this time, the family was forced to stay together, with their daughter graduating high school and their son finishing eighth grade. “We all were in the house together and we had nothing but time,” Taylor noted. This period of forced togetherness gave them the space to work on their relationship with the help of a therapist. “Ben and I spent a lot of time just working on us with a therapist and we’d log into Zoom and we’d do our therapy sessions and really found the way back,” she added.
Taylor also highlighted the importance of taking time to reflect on relationships. “Life moves at such a rapid pace that we don’t often take the time to just pause and say, ‘Okay, he looked at his stuff, I looked at my stuff’… long-term marriages are a lot of work.”
Rebuilding Their Relationship
Taylor and Stiller emerged from this challenging period “really stronger and better than ever.” She expressed comfort in discussing their journey, believing it’s important for others to know that it’s okay to take time to reassess a relationship. “I feel really comfortable talking about it because I think it’s really important for people to feel like that’s okay.”
In a 2022 Esquire interview, Stiller confirmed that the couple reunited during the pandemic while living under one roof with their children. He credited the close proximity and lack of distractions with helping them mend their relationship. “We were separated and got back together and we’re happy about that. It’s been really wonderful for all of us. Unexpected, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic,” he shared.
Stiller also emphasized that their marriage now works because they accept each other’s differences and similarities. “We’ve learned to appreciate what makes us unique and what brings us together,” he said.
