Christine Taylor Shares Reason Behind Ben Stiller Separation

Christine Taylor is opening up about her split from Ben Stiller. During a chat with Drew Barrymore on Tuesday, the Dodgeball actress recalled the decision she and Stiller made to separate -- before rekindling their love during the pandemic.

"We got married very quickly after meeting each other. We knew each other six months, got engaged, were married within a year, then had Ella the next year. Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both started to grow in different directions," she told Barrymore. "And when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about or took lightly. We were at this impasse of, let's figure this out, what's best at this chapter in our lives."

Taylor added that their time apart took place over a number of years, but when they decided to spend time together with their children during the pandemic, the decision to call off their split came naturally.

"That's going back three or four years," she added. "And 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. We always stayed a family unit. So, 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. We had so much time to talk, there were no other distractions. It just happened organically."

In 2017, Taylor and Stiller announced they were separating after 17 years of marriage. However, during the course of the pandemic, the pair -- who never filed for divorce -- rekindled their love.

Taylor, 51, and Stiller, 57, share daughter Ella, 20, and son Quinn, 17.

In January, the Hey Dude...The 90s Called podcast host spoke to ET about the pandemic bringing her and her husband closer together.

"I think long-term marriages, it was good for us for a period of time to have some space and then the pandemic brought us together and that was what was right for us," she told ET. "That was ultimately what was meant to be and so I'm very grateful for that. There are some silver linings for sure from the pandemic."

Stiller and Taylor recently celebrated 23 years of marriage, and Taylor shared the key to their lasting love.

"I feel like relationships grow," she said at the time. "You grow with them. I feel like for us, for me, I was in my late 20s when we met and now I'm 51. You grow and you ebb and flow and I really think it's just about constant communication. You ride the waves of the ups and downs and and, you know, figure it out and I'm really lucky."

She added, "23 years goes by fast."

In 2022, Stiller dished about the direction his life had taken since getting back together with Taylor.

"I’m so happy where I’m at in my life and the fact that we're even able to be here together doing this right now, all those things are now not taken for granted," Stiller told ET. "The whole last few years have been a time for everybody to kind of get in touch with a lot of that."

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