Ben Stiller Admits He Felt Like a ‘Failure’ During Separation From Christine Taylor—as He Reveals What Finally Brought Them Back Together

Actor Ben Stiller has admitted he felt like a "failure" following his 2017 separation from wife Christine Taylor—confessing that he struggled to stop comparing his own marriage to his parents' 50-year union.

Stiller, 59, and Taylor, 54, who have since reunited, both shed light on their decision to split in a teaser for a new AppleTV+ documentary about the actor's parents, which is titled "Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost."

The actor noted that there are many parallels between his own romance and that of his mom and dad—with both couples enjoying a professional and private union.

Stiller and Taylor met on the set of a pilot for the 1999 show "Heat Vision and Jack," and went on to tie the knot in 2000—ultimately settling down with their two children in New York.

Over the years, they have continued to collaborate in front of the cameras, appearing first in 2001's "Zoolander," in which they played each other's love interests, then in 2004's "Dodgeball," in which Taylor's character had a relationship with Vince Vaughn's character.

They welcomed their first child, daughter Ella Olivia, 23, in between those two projects, while son Quinlan Dempsey, 20, was born in 2005.

Their continued collaboration on-screen helped the pair to become one of the most popular couples in Hollywood—so fans were stunned when, in 2017, they announced that they were separating after nearly 18 years of marriage.

"With tremendous love and respect for each other, and the 18 years we spent together as a couple, we have made the decision to separate," they told People at the time.

"Our priority will continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends. We kindly ask that the media respect our privacy at this time."

The duo's separation stretched on for more than a year before they reunited during the COVID-19 pandemic, a moment that Stiller has now recounted in his documentary, which premieres on Oct. 17.

Shedding some light on his own frame of mind during that time, the actor said that he struggled to not compare his seemingly failed romance to that of his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who also intertwined their careers and their personal lives.

"I don't want to become my parents. I do feel like there was history, and I think a lot of it was your experience of what that ultimately meant for a relationship that it could put extra strain when you're eating, sleeping, breathing each other in that way,” Stiller said of what was going through their mind during their split.

“I also felt like there was a fear from you for me of what that would look like to the outside world," Taylor added. "I mean, it was very loaded.” 

Stiller went on to note that he struggled to carve his own path as a husband and a father—and continually compared his own relationship to the picture-perfect image of marriage that his parents had provided.

“When we separated, my feeling was like ‘Oh, I’m failing at this,' and look at my parents. They have this incredible 50-plus-year marriage, and I can’t live up to that,” Stiller told his wife in the documentary.

After announcing their split, they were spotted together several times, with Taylor even supporting Stiller at the 2019 Emmys.

In 2022, Stiller told Esquire that they had reconnected during the pandemic when the entire family was living in the same house again.

He reflected on the decision to get back together in the documentary: “All of a sudden, we were together in the house, and during that time, I started to make the movie, too.

"So there [was] sort of this coming together. Us talking about what we were going through, our issues, and looking at what my parents had been through, too, in a way I hadn’t looked at it before,” he continued.

In 2016, Stiller snapped up a four-bedroom condo for $15 million in a luxury building in New York City's West Village.

However, their main residence is believed to be a 33-acre spread north of Manhattan in Chappaqua, NY. They also own a 14-acre pad near Kilauea, HI.