COUPLES'Unhappy' Ben Stiller Admits He Felt 'Lost' Amid Christine Taylor Separation
Ben Stiller shared how 'lost' he was during his split from Christine Taylor in 2017.
Oct. 6 2025, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
Ben Stiller is getting real about one of the most difficult chapters of his life — his separation from wife Christine Taylor.
During the October 5 premiere of Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost — a documentary honoring his late parents, comedy legends Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara — at the New York Film Festival, the 59-year-old actor got candid about how deeply the split affected him.
Ben Stiller opened up about feeling 'lost' during his 2017 separation from wife Christine Taylor.
“My career had been going along for a long time but things actually weren’t great in my personal life,” Ben shared with an outlet. “I just felt out of balance and unhappy and kind of disconnected from my family, from my kids and just kind of a little bit lost.”
He added, “I started to think about my parents and all the stress and tension I remember seeing as a kid and the pressure when they were working together and how they stayed together through it. … I think I wanted to somehow understand how they did it.”
Ben and Christine, who tied the knot in 2000, were together for 17 years before announcing their separation in 2017.
“With tremendous love and respect for each other, and the 18 years we spent together as a couple, we have made the decision to separate,” he couple said in a joint statement at the time. “Our priority will continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends. We kindly ask that the media respect our privacy at this time.”
The actor said he felt unhappy and disconnected from his family before realizing how much he valued them.
The two, who share daughter Ella and son Quinn, eventually reconciled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"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," Ben admitted in another interview. "It was like three or four years that we weren’t together but we always were connected."
"In my mind, I never didn’t want us to be together. I don’t know where Christine was, you’d have to ask her, but COVID put us all together in the same house. It was almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together," he recalled of his family's time during quarantine in 2020. "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. You have so much more appreciation for what you have, because we know we could not have it."
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The pair, who share two kids, reunited during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, Ben opened up about his relationship with Christine during an appearance on The View, nearly five years after they patched things up.
“I think we both wanted it,” Ben said about getting back together with his Zoolander costar.
Ben Stiller said he’s now 'grateful' every day for their second chance at marriage.
He reflected, “In a relationship — we’ve been married for 25 years — you have to work at it. COVID happened, and we all got in a house together with our family. I’m grateful. I’m so grateful we’re back together.”
While admitting that some exes shouldn’t reunite because it’s “not the right thing,” Ben explained that for him and Christine, “it was the right thing.”
Reigniting their romance, the actor said, has only deepened their bond.
“Now, every day that we’re together, we do not take for granted. I know I don’t,” he added. “Because you know it could go away. That, to me, is the gift of our relationship — that we have that every day. I’m so happy that we’re back together.”
