Ben Stiller has spoken about his short split from wife Christine Taylor – with the pair splitting in 2017 and reuniting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a candid new chat with The Hollywood Reporter, the comedian and Zoolander star, 59, admits that despite their split, “There was a part of me that wasn’t ready to just give up on it [their relationship]”.

He mentioned the enduring love of his late parents Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller for inspiring him to work on his marriage.

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“I didn’t expect we were going to get back together,” he said.

“But when we broke up, there was a part of me that wasn’t ready to just give up on it.”

He also gushed about his love for his wife and family.

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”Probably a certain amount of that is having watched my parents. And I love Christine, I love my family, and I was not ready to just go, ‘OK, enough of this.'”

Anne and Jerry were married for over 60 years and worked together in Hollywood. 

When the comedy great died in 2020, Ben shared a tribute post on X and sweetly wrote: “He was a great dad and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years.”

Ben and Christine, 53, married back in 2000 after meeting on set in 1999.

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He recently told The New York Times about the split: “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.”

“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.”

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