Ben Stiller Missed Wife Christine Taylor ‘Terribly’ Amid Split, Didn’t Want to Raise Kids in a ‘Broken Home’

usmagazine.com:

Together again! Ben Stiller‘s split from Christine Taylor “was a serious eye-opener” for the actor, a source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.The twosome “weren’t seeing eye to eye on a number of things” before announcing their separation in May 2017 after 18 years together. “The split was a long time coming,” the insider adds, noting that both the Zoolander star, 56, and the Craft actress, 50, were “hoping for change” before calling it quits.In February, however, Stiller told Esquire that he and Taylor were giving their marriage another try. “It’s been really wonderful for all of us,” he gushed of the “unexpected” reconciliation.The Dodgeball costars tied the knot in 2000 and share two children: Ella, 19, and Quinlin, 16.

According to the source, the teens were a large part of why the couple chose to reunite.“He missed [Christine] terribly and hated the idea of their kids growing up in a broken home,” the insider tells Us, adding that Stiller realized “what he’d lost” after the split.The Night at the Museum actor took the time for “a lot of self-evaluation during the [coronavirus] pandemic,” the source notes. “He made a conscious effort to stop sweating the small stuff and figure out how to channel his energy whilst compromising with Christine on those issues that really didn’t matter at the end of the day.”Before officially confirming that they got back together, Stiller and the Brady Bunch Movie star attended multiple events as a pair, including the 2019 Emmys, where they posed for photos on the red carpet.

An eyewitness later told Us that the duo looked “happy” and never left “each other’s sides” during the awards show.Stiller and Taylor met while filming a 1999 TV pilot called Heat Vision and Jack.