Christine Taylor recently opened up on The Drew Barrymore Show about the period of separation and the following reconciliation in her marriage with actor, Ben Stiller. “Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both started to grow in different directions,” Taylor shared with her The Wedding Singer co-star Drew Barrymore. “And when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about or took lightly.”
People reported that Christine and Ben were trying to figure things out after being in the cold in their relationship. “We were at this impasse of, ‘Let’s figure this out — what’s best at this chapter in our lives?'”
Taylor and Stiller tied the knot after a whirlwind romance in 2000, and they share a 20-year-old daughter, Ella, and a 17-year-old son, Quinlin. Speaking about their courtship and subsequent marriage, Christine said, “We got married very quickly after meeting each other. We knew each other six months, got engaged, married within the year, and had Ella that next year.”
The actress revealed their reconciliation was triggered by the growth they experienced during their time apart. “[During] that time apart, we got to know who we are. I think we have these growth spurts, even as adults. And we needed time to figure that out.” she explained to the viewers and listeners of the talk show.
Labeling the rekindling of their romance as “organic” and without any distractions, Christine confessed that the pandemic lockdown worked like magic for their relationship. “When the pandemic hit and we all had to figure out where we were going to hunker down, we all ended up in our house together,” Christine explained. “We found this way back. We had so much time to talk. There were no other distractions.”
“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,” Christine continued. “There is a freedom in the comfort of this relationship and the commitment.”
Last year during an interview with Esquire , Ben mentioned a few tips on keeping the relationship alive: “I think we have respect for the ways that we’re similar and the ways we’re different. And I think by accepting that, you can really appreciate someone more because you’re not trying to get them to change for you. Once you accept that, you save a lot of energy. This is something that works for me; this is something that doesn’t work for me.”
The star couple has also professionally shared screen space with each other in Zoolander , Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Tropic Thunder, and Zoolander 2 .