Ben Stiller isn’t taking his second chance at love with Christine Taylor for granted.
During Thursday’s episode of “The View,” the actor reflected on his decision to reconcile with his wife in 2022 following a years-long separation that began in 2017.
“Every day that we’re together, we do not take for granted –– at least, I know I don’t,” he said. “Because you know it could go away, and that to me is the gift for our relationship, is that we have that every day.”
The “Meet the Parents” actor gushed that he “really [is] so happy” that they made the “right” decision to get back together.
Stiller, 59, elaborated on their reconciliation and admitted that he’s not totally sure “how it happened,” besides both of them deciding they “wanted it.”
“We’ve been married for 25 years, and you know you have to work at it,” he recalled. “You know, COVID happened, and we all got in a house together with our family, and I don’t know, I’m just grateful.”
“View” co-host Joy Behar –– who has previously spoken about her divorce from her first husband, Joseph –– chimed in and said that sometimes it helps to “take the blame for what you did, instead of blaming the other person.”
“No, I don’t know about that,” he joked, before adding, “[I] just have an amazing wife.”
Stiller and Taylor, 53, tied the knot in 2000 after meeting the year prior on the set of “Heat Vision and Jack.” They announced their separation in a joint statement in 2017.
“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,” the statement read. “Our priority will continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends.”
The “Dodgeball” co-stars –– who share daughter Ella, 22, and son Quinlin, 19 –– never formally filed for divorce. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, they reunited and lived together with their kids.
“Then, over the course of time, it evolved,” Stiller told Esquire in 2022, the year he and Taylor made their romance official again. “We were separated and got back together and we’re happy about that. It’s been really wonderful for all of us. Unexpected, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic.”
The “Zoolander” actor added that they each learned a new level of “respect” for each other in “ways that we’re similar and the ways we’re different.”
“I think accepting that, you can really appreciate someone more because you’re not trying to get them to change for you,” he said. “Once you accept that, you save a lot of energy.”
