STILLER & WIFE SPLIT UP Stars’ 17-year marriage is over

HOLLYWOOD actor Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor have split after 17 years of marriage.

The couple announced the break-up in a joint statement that read: “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.”

Ben, 51, and Christine, 45, have two children together, daughter Ella, 15 and son Quinlin, 12.

In the statement, issued to Entertainment Today, they continued: “Our priority will continue to be raising our children as devoted parents and the closest of friends.”

Ben met actress Christine on the set of Fox TV pilot Heat Vision and Jack in 1999.

They married the following year in Kauai, Hawaii. Talking about his wife in an interview ten years ago, Ben said: “When I met her, I pretty much thought, ‘That’s the person’. It was like, ‘Wow, this is a great person. I love her’.” The couple starred in several comedies together, including Zoolander, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Tropic Thunder and Arrested Development. Ben has said the secret of his successful marriage was “a sense of humour”. He said: “I say that’s the secret to a happy marriage anywhere, in any city, not just Hollywood, I think you got to laugh. “We“We all have to de deal with what life throws at us, so you got to have a sense of humour about it. If you can share that, at th the end, it makes a huge difference difference.” In October, Ben revealed he had endure endured a secret health battle after being diagn nosed with prostate c cancer in 2014.