Ben Stiller insists his split from wife Christine Taylor was never meant to be permanent.

The 59-year-old actor has opened up about his years-long breakup from Christine Taylor - with whom he has children Ella, 22, and Quinlin, 19 - before they rekindled their relationship during the pandemic.

Speaking to The New York Times, he said: "When we separated, it was just having space to see what our relationship was, what my life felt like when we weren't in that relationship, how much I loved our family unit.

"It was like three or four years that we weren't together but we always were connected. In my mind, I never didn't want us to be together.

"I don't know where Christine was, you'd have to ask her, but Covid put us all together in the same house."

The couple - who got married in 2000 - moved back in together during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, but it took time for them to get back together.

He recalled: "It was almost a year of living in the same house before we were actually together.

"But I'm so grateful for it, and I think not that many people do come back together when they separate.

"There's nothing like that, when you come back. You have so much more appreciation for what you have, because we know we could not have it."

Christine - who appeared with alongside Ben in the likes of 'Zoolander' and 'Dodgeball: A True Overdog Story' - previously opened up about their seperation.

Appearing on 'The Drew Barrymore Show' in 2024, she said: "We got married very quickly after meeting each other. we knew each other six months, got engaged, we were married within a year and had Ella the next year.

"Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both sort of started to grow in different directions, and when we made the decision to separate, it was not something we wanted to talk publicly about, it was not something we took lightly either."

She insisted they had "growth spurts" personally as adults and needed "time to figure that out".

Reflecting on their reunion in a 2022 chat with Esquire, Ben said: "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."