Actor Ben Stiller has admitted he was feeling "disconnected" from his family amid his separation from wife Christine Taylor, in a new documentary about the Zoolander star’s parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. "My career had been going along for a long time but things actually weren't great in my personal life," the actor shared in the documentary. He and Christine separated for a few years in 2017, but reunited later on. "I just felt out of balance and unhappy and kind of disconnected from my family, from my kids and just kind of a little bit lost," he added.
Ben and Christine shocked the showbiz world when they shared the news that they were splitting after 18 years together. At the time, Severance director Ben said: "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. Our priority will continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends."
However, the duo went on to spend the pandemic together under one roof, which saw them patch things up, going on to announce they had rekindled their relationship in 2022. Ben explained that it was "three or four years" that they weren't together, though he maintained: "We always were connected. In my mind, I never didn't want us to be together."
Of their reunion, Ben continued: "I think not that many people do come back together when they separate. There's nothing like when you come back. You have so much more appreciation for what you have, because we know we could not have it," he added.
The 59-year-old father of two said in his new documentary that the experiences his parents had been through themselves gave him cause to reflect and think about how they navigated their own ups and downs throughout their marriage.
"I started to think about my parents and all the stress and tension I remember seeing as a kid and the pressure when they were working together and how they stayed together through it," he said, adding: "I think I wanted to somehow understand how they did it."
Ben is spotlighting the life and journey of his parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara in the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. His late parents made up the comedy duo Stiller and Meara, beginning in the late 1950s.
Their act, often parodying domestic troubles with distinct warmth and even poking fun at their opposing religious beliefs (Jerry was Jewish, Anne was Catholic), skyrocketed in prominence by the 1960s, and until the 1970s, they were one of the country's top comedic acts.
The documentary, which will be out on October 17 for limited theatrical release before hitting the streaming platform on October 24, captures how they balanced their immense success with raising two kids, Ben and his sister Amy. "When they were working, I remember sometimes hearing laughter, sometimes hearing raised voices, never knowing if that was real or them rehearsing something," he recalls in the trailer.