and husband are trying out a new living arrangement.
Phillips, 56, outlined the couple’s current dynamic in a video uploaded to her YouTube channel on Sunday, November 3.
“Billy and I are sort of in this new kind of arrangement that is actually really working for me. I don’t know if it’s working for Billster, but I’m very happy with what we’re doing,” the actress said. “I just really felt like, where in the Bible does it say that I have to live under the same roof 24/7 with my husband? Can you please find me that scripture?”
Phillips noted that she and Baldwin, 61, are doing “a little test run” of living in separate homes in Santa Barbara and Beverly Hills. While living apart, the pair meet up for “date nights” and “therapy” and dinners with their three children: daughters Jameson, 24, and Brooke, 19, and son Vance, 22.
Phillips clarified that she and Baldwin can have “sleepovers” and spend several days together when they want, but they aren’t “forcing ourselves to be subjected to each other’s energy 24/7.”
Later in the video, Phillips and Baldwin, who have been married since 1995, hopped on a FaceTime call.
“We’re on to something,” Phillips told Baldwin of their decision to live separately for the time being.
“We enjoy each other’s company. That’s what is so hard to articulate to people: that we’re madly in love, we really enjoy being around one another, we cherish our marriage, we don’t ever want to separate,” she continued. “We just need a little bit of time apart because we are sort of an allergy to one another. And it’s OK, I’m sure lots of different couples are allergies to each other.”
Baldwin interjected to say, “the reality is you have the allergy,” quipping that he has “a certain energy” that bothers Phillips. The twosome also joked that they should have “conjugal visits.”
Phillips further commented on their unconventional decision in the video’s caption.
“Marriage is a roller coaster, but I think I’ve found a way to get off the ride, without having to actually ‘get off the ride’😂 !!” she wrote. “Billy and I are working together to structure a living situation that works for us both. Maybe we’re nuts, but we think we’re onto something. Does distance really make the heart grow fonder? Well, we’re certainly about to find out 🤔.”
Phillips asked her followers to “keep praying for Billy” because he’s “a bit confused” about where they stand.
“Makes perfect sense, because I am too 😭,” she admitted.
Phillips has been candid about the duo’s ups and downs in the past. After she filed for divorce and then quickly withdrew the papers in 2010, Phillips exclusively told Us Weekly that she’d “started to feel a little flatlined” in her marriage.
“It became so about the children and so about my business, his business, and I missed him. I really missed him,” she explained. “I missed laughing together, taking our little vacations together.”
More recently, Phillips admitted in January that her increased interest in religion had created a “power struggle” between her and Baldwin.
“I’m not the same person I was 30 years ago, and I refused to have the same marriage that we had 30 years ago,” she explained during a YouTube livestream. “It’s time for us to mature and grow. He was on board, but I think that for him it was also like, ‘Well, you’re not into the things that I’m into.’”
Phillips also shared that she and Baldwin had previously “separated for six months,” but did not specify when the separation occured.
