Christine Taylor opened up about how she and husband Ben Stiller rekindled their romance after previously announcing their separation back in 2017.
The 51-year-old actor talked about what went down in her household in 2020 during a recent interview with The Drew Barrymore Show. In February 2022, Stiller told Esquire that he and Taylor were back together after he moved in with her and their two children, Ella, 20, and Quinlin, 17, at the beginning of the pandemic.
For her part, Taylor explained to Drew Barrymore that while she, Stiller, and their children were “always a family unit” and did different activities together, their dynamic changed during the pandemic.
“But when the pandemic hit and we all had to figure out where to hunker down, we all ended up in our house together with two teenagers and we found this way back,” she explained.
She recalled how she and Stiller spent a lot of time with each other, which helped them naturally rekindle their relationship again.
“We had so much time to talk, there were no other distractions,” Taylor said. “So it was a really special time for us, for the family…it just happened organically.”
Taylor even said things between her and the Night at the Museum star are “so good” right now.
“I feel like when you’ve lived a lifetime with someone, and you know we have, and there’s history,” she said. “We learned as we were going along, together. And I think there’s just a freedom in that, there’s a freedom in the comfort of this relationship and the commitment…And knowing that we also have to take care of ourselves.”
During his interview with Esquire last year, Stiller said his and Taylor’s reconciliation “evolved” over time.
“It’s been really wonderful for all of us. Unexpected, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic,” he said.
He also pointed out one thing that’s made his marriage work, adding: “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. If you have that trust level with your partner, you know that me saying: ‘I don’t like doing that thing’ is not me saying: ‘I don’t like you.’”
The pair got married in 2000, one year after they met while working on the pilot of Heat Vision and Jack, which never aired. During an episode of Taylor’s podcast Hey Dude…The 90s Called! that came out last month, she and her husband recalled how after the show was over, they spent some time in New York together.
“We were both each other’s, I would say, rebound relationship at the time,” Taylor explained, before her husband added: “We weren’t taking it seriously.”
The Wedding Singer star said their relationship with Stiller quickly progressed after she went to New York.
“We were having fun,” she said. “And you got to New York…and you called me a couple days later and you said, ‘Wanna come to New York and hangout?’ And I ended up going and staying the entire summer.”
Elsewhere in her interview with Barrymore, Taylor reflected on her initial split from Stiller and why they were so private about it.
“Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I started to grow in different directions,” she explained. “And when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about. It was not something we took lightly either. We were both at sort of this impasse of like, ‘Let’s figure out what’s best.’ Like what is best for us in this chapter of our lives.”
