Ben Stiller is reflecting on the yearslong separation he and his wife Christine Taylor took and how it strengthened their marriage.
The pair were married in 2000, but in 2017, they separated only to reconcile sometime during the COVID pandemic, when they moved back in together. In a new interview with The New York Times, Stiller explained why they took time apart.
"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," he said. "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."
The actor explained that they reunited during the pandemic.
"I don't know where Christine was, you'd have to ask her, but COVID put us all together in the same house," he explained. Their reunion was not immediate. As Stiller noted, it was "almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together again."
"But I'm so grateful for it, and I think not that many people do come back together when they separate," Stiller added. "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."
Taylor also spoke about their separation during an appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show," saying she and Stiller "got married very quickly after meeting each other," and eventually, they "both started to grow in different directions," according to People.
Their separation, she said, was "not something we took lightly," and they "always stayed a family unit."
"It was sort of like we were both at this impasse of 'Let's figure out what's best: What's best for each other at this chapter in our lives?' … That time apart for each of us to sort of get to know who we are — I think we have these growth spurts even as adults," she said at the time. "I feel like we needed some time to figure that out."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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