Ben Stiller is opening up about an incredibly vulnerable time in his life.
The “Severance” director talks about his 2017 separation from his wife, Christine Taylor, in a new documentary he made about his late parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Stiller says in the documentary, “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost,” that because of how connected his actor parents’ careers were, he didn’t want to make that same mistake when he started seeing Taylor, who is also an actor.
“I do feel like there was history, and I think a lot of it was your experience of what that ultimately meant for a relationship that it could put extra strain when you’re eating, sleeping, breathing each other in that way,” Taylor tells Stiller, via People magazine. “I also felt like there was a fear from you for me of what that would look like to the outside world. I mean it was very loaded.”
Stiller put it simply, stating, “I don’t want to become my parents.”
However, when he and Taylor went on to separate in 2017, he had a different thought about how his relationship related to his parents.
“When we separated my feeling was like ‘Oh, I’m failing at this,’” he shared. “And look at my parents, they have this incredible 50 plus year marriage and I can’t live up to that.”
Stiller and Taylor ultimately didn’t stay separated and publicly announced that they were back on in 2022.
Bruce Glikas via Getty Images
The “Night at the Museum” actor told Esquire that the two reunited during the coronavirus pandemic, when they moved back in together to be with their two children, Ella and Quinlin.
“Then, over the course of time, it evolved,” the now-59-year-old shared at the time. “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.”
Taylor also spoke about the two’s reunion during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in 2023.
“Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both sort of started to grow in different directions,” Taylor said of the couple’s decision to separate.
“That time apart for each of us to sort of get to know who we are,” she later added. “I think we have these growth spurts even as adults.”
