RIP, true love.
In a shocking announcement made this evening, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor revealed the news that their marriage is over after 17 years.
It hardly seems right.
Ben and Christine released a joint statement to Entertainment Tonight, explaining that “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.”
In closing, the (former, we guess) couple asked for privacy during this tough time.
And man, what a surprisingly heartbreaking time it is.
The two comedic actors met while filming a TV pilot called Heat Vision and Jack, and if you don’t remember it, it’s because the show was never picked up.
But their relationship sure picked up — after a year of dating, they were married in a beach ceremony in Hawaii, exactly 17 years ago this month.
Ben proposed after they’d been dating just seven months, and in an old interview, he compared the situation to one of his biggest movies, Meet the Parents.
“I asked her father for permission before I did it,” he recalled at the time. “It was like Meet the Parents in real life, because Christine’s father is an intimidating guy who owns a security company.”
In 2002, they welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Ella, and three years later they had a son named Quinlin.
They’ve also worked together quite a bit, with Christine making appearances in Zoolander, both the original movie and the 2016 sequel, and Dodgeball.
She also had a small part in 2008’s Tropic Thunder.
There’s no word yet on what went wrong with their marriage, and we don’t imagine there will be.
Ben and Christine have never really made it in the tabloids, and they’ve been exceedingly private in their relationship.
After all, they were together before social media existed — scandals just weren’t as easy to come by in 2000.
We imagine that they’ll stay true to their statement and keep things just as classy and private as ever, all while continuing to raise their children together.
But we’re not going to lie — this split really hurts.
