Ben Stiller is reflecting on love, family, and what it means to make a marriage work, even when it feels like you’re falling short.
In his new Apple TV+ documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, the actor and director opens up about his 2017 separation from wife Christine Taylor, revealing that he once felt like he was “failing” because he couldn’t live up to the lasting love of his famous parents, comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
“When we separated my feeling was like, ‘Oh, I’m failing at this,’” Ben admits in the documentary. “And look at my parents, they have this incredible 50-plus-year marriage, and I can’t live up to that.”
Learning from his parents’ six-decade marriage
Ben, 59, and Christine, 54, have always had a creative connection, just like his parents. They first met in 1999 on the set of Heat Vision and Jack before tying the knot in 2000. Over the years, they’ve shared the screen in Zoolander (2001), Dodgeball (2004), and Tropic Thunder (2008).
In Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, Ben reflects on how his parents’ decades-long partnership — both romantic and professional — shaped his understanding of relationships. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were not only married for over 60 years, but also performed together as a comedy duo, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show 36 times.
“I started to think about my parents and all the stress and tension I remember seeing as a kid,” Ben shares. “And how they stayed together through it.”
Christine adds that working so closely together early in their marriage came with challenges. “I also felt like there was a fear from you for me of what that would look like to the outside world,” she says in the film. “It was very loaded.”
Why did Ben Stiller and his wife split up?
After nearly two decades together, the couple announced their separation in 2017, saying in a joint statement that their priority would “continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends.”
At the time, Ben admits he felt disconnected from his wife, from his kids, and from himself. The separation, he says, became a wake-up call.
“It was just having space to see what our relationship was, what my life felt like when we weren’t in that relationship,” Ben previously told The New York Times. “It was like three or four years that we weren’t together but we always were connected.”
The couple share two children, daughter Ella Olivia, 23, and son Quinlin Dempsey, 20, who largely grew up out of the spotlight. Still, Ben has acknowledged that balancing his career and fatherhood hasn’t always been easy. In 2022, he revealed that Ella once confronted him about his absence when she was younger, a moment that pushed him to re-evaluate his priorities.
“Kids just want a parent who’s emotionally present and supportive of them,” he said.
Are Christine and Ben still together?
In 2022, Ben revealed to Esquire that he and Christine rekindled their relationship during the pandemic while living under the same roof again. “All of a sudden we were together in the house,” he recalled. “During that time, we started talking about what we were going through… and looking at what my parents had been through, too.”
Christine has said the reconciliation happened naturally: “We found this way back. We had so much time to talk. There was no other distraction.”
Now, years later, the Zoolander star says he’s more grateful than ever. Speaking to E! News at the premiere of his documentary at the New York Film Festival, Ben shared what he believes is the real secret to their lasting relationship: “You just have to want to be together and want to make it work. It’s about valuing the relationship.”
Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost will hit cinemas on October 17, and on October 25, the documentary will be released on Apple TV+.
