Ben Stiller felt like he was ‘failing’ after separation from wife

Ben Stiller opens up about why he felt like he ‘failed’ after divorcing his spouse.

In his new documentary ‘Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced’, the 59-year-old ‘Zoolander’ star examines his mother and father’ decades-long partnership and compares it to his personal marriage to Christine Taylor.

Ben and Taylor married in 2000 and introduced their divorce in Might 2017 after 17 years collectively.

“Once we broke up, I felt like, ‘Oh, I am failing at this,’ and have a look at my mother and father. They’ve an unimaginable marriage of over 50 years and I can not reside as much as that,” he tells Taylor within the documentary, per People.

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Stiller felt like a failure when he and Taylor broke up and in contrast his relationship to his mother and father’ marriage. (Stefanie Keenan/VF25/WireImage for Vainness Honest; NBCU Picture Financial institution/NBCUniversal through Getty Photos)

The documentary follows the connection between his father, Jerry Stiller, and his mom, Anne Meara, who carried out collectively as the long-lasting comedy duo Stiller and Meara. Collectively they made greater than 30 appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Present” and later had their very own short-lived selection present, “The Stiller and Meara Present.”

Ben and Taylor additionally labored collectively quite a lot of occasions throughout their relationship. They first met whereas filming the pilot of a TV present known as ‘Warmth Imaginative and prescient and Jack’, and later starred alongside one another in ‘Zoolander’ and ‘Dodgeball’. Wanting again, Ben recalled questioning “what sort of toll” his mother and father’ working relationship was placing on their marriage, and he recalled not desirous to be like his mother and father when he first began courting Taylor.

“Once we broke up, I felt like, ‘Oh, I am failing at this,’ and have a look at my mother and father. They’ve an unimaginable marriage of over 50 years and I can not reside as much as that.”

– Ben Stiller

“I really feel like there was historical past and I believe a whole lot of it was your expertise of what that in the end meant for a relationship, that it may create further strain once you’re consuming, sleeping and respiratory one another that manner,” Taylor advised Ben within the documentary. “I additionally felt like there was a concern for me about what that may appear to be to the skin world. I imply, it was very charged.”

The ‘Tropic Thunder’ star beforehand spoke about his divorce from Taylor throughout a January 2025 interview with The New York Timeswherein he defined, “In my thoughts, I by no means wished us to be collectively.”

Ben Stiller by no means thought his divorce from Taylor could be everlasting. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions through Getty Photos)

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Their separation lasted “three or 4 years,” and the 2 have been involved throughout that point. They later moved into the identical home with their two youngsters, Ella, 23, and Quinlin, 20, in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I do not know the place Christine was, you’d must ask her, however COVID introduced us all collectively in the identical home,” he defined. “It was nearly a yr of dwelling in the identical home earlier than we have been truly collectively. However I am so grateful for it, and I do not suppose many individuals get again collectively once they break up.”

Taylor additionally mentioned their separation throughout a March 2023 look on “The Drew Barrymore Present,” explaining that the 2 “realized who we’re” throughout their separation.

She added that they acquired engaged six months after assembly, “acquired married inside a yr, after which acquired married [daughter Ella] the next yr.”

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Taylor stated she and Ben had grown in several instructions and wanted time to determine issues out. (Kennedy Pollard/Getty Photos for Don Julio Tequila)

“Household was at all times a precedence, however I believe Ben and I each began to develop in several instructions,” Taylor stated. “And after we made the choice to half methods, it wasn’t one thing we wished to speak about publicly or take frivolously.”

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“I believe now we have these development spurts, at the same time as adults,” she later added. “And we wanted time to determine that out.”

“Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Misplaced” premieres on Apple TV+ on October 24.