They were one of Hollywood’s power couples. Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor were comedy’s golden couple, starring in movies together, becoming a fixture on the red carpet, and welcoming two kids during their 17-year marriage.
But it came abruptly to an end when the couple announced they had split in 2017.
Five years later the parents made headlines when announcing they had reunited, and now they’re revealing how they made their way back to each other.
The answer? The coronavirus pandemic, which forced them to quarantine together as a family.
“We had all this time to talk,” shared Christine on Drew Barrymore’s talk show. “There were no other distractions. It was a really special time.”
The actress explained in the 2023 interview that although spending “time apart” had been vital for the couple, they had always prioritised family time.
“We always stayed a family unit [and] continued to do things together,” she said. “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.”
So how do the couple make it work a second time around? By taking time for each other whilst still taking care of themselves.
“It’s hard,” the mum-of-two explained. “[But] when you’ve lived a lifetime with someone … there’s history.”
“We learned as we were going together…There’s just a freedom in that, in the comfort of this relationship and commitment.”
Ben has also opened up in the past about their reconciliation, telling Esquire that he and Christine were “happy.”
“I think we have a respect for the ways that we’re similar and the ways we’re different.”
“I didn’t expect we were going to get back together,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in a February 2025 interview. “But when we broke up, there was a part of me that wasn’t ready to just give up on it.”
In an interview with The New York Times in January, he also admitted the couple only re-kindled their relationship almost a year after living together during the pandemic.
“It was almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together,” he told the publication. “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,” he continued. “You have so much more appreciation for what you have, because we know we could not have it.”
