Ben Affleck mirrored on the “deliberately mischaracterized” feedback he made about his relationship with alcohol all through his marriage to Jennifer Garner.
For context, Ben and Jennifer bought married in 2005, and welcomed three kids collectively earlier than asserting their break up in 2015.
Their divorce was finally finalized in 2018, and within the years since, Ben and Jennifer look to have maintained a robust and pleasant coparenting relationship to the advantage of their three shared kids — Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11.
After first checking right into a rehab facility in 2001, Ben has spoken candidly about his difficulties with alcohol. He sought remedy for his habit on a number of events all through his marriage to Jennifer in 2008, 2017, and once more in 2018 after their divorce was finalized.
Ben has publicly credited Jennifer for her unwavering help throughout these durations, and has beforehand opened up about how his habit was one of many primary causes of their break up, saying in 2020 that he began consuming “more and more” as their marriage was “falling apart,” which solely led to “more marital problems.”
And in December 2021, Ben confronted intense backlash after he seemingly blamed his struggles with alcoholism on his marriage to Jennifer, telling Howard Stern that he’d felt “trapped” in direction of the tip of their 10-year relationship.
“The truth was we took our time, we made the decision, we grew apart,” he stated of the wedding breakdown. “We had a marriage that didn’t work.”
“We tried because we had kids,” he continued. “We did not want it to be the model of marriage for the kids. We did our best. I knew she was a good mom, and I hoped she knew I was a good dad.”
Going on to speak about his alcohol habit extra explicitly, Ben advised the host that if he and Jennifer have been nonetheless married he’d “probably still be drinking.”
“Part of why I started drinking alcohol was because I felt trapped,” he stated. “I was like ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy. What do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
Given how a lot Ben had beforehand praised Jennifer for her love and help throughout his restoration, folks discovered it stunning and disappointing that he’d seemingly recommend she was in any option to blame for his habit.
In reality, the backlash turned so intense that the actor was compelled to handle the criticism throughout an look on Jimmy Kimmel Live a number of days later, the place appeared visibly emotional as he insisted that he’d by no means “say a bad word” about his ex.
“I had gone on and said how much we respect each other and cared about each other, and cared about our kids and put them first and went through our stuff,” he defined, saying that the quotes taken out of context made him appear as if an “awful guy.”
“It’s the exact opposite of who I am, what I believe,” he stated of the accusations that he’d “blamed” Jennifer. “I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom. Because I never had, I never would.”
Visibly harm and annoyed, he concluded by saying that being the topic of media scrutiny “is just sort of the cost of doing business as an actor,” however that he has an obligation to guard his household.
“Not with my kids. Don’t do that. It’s wrong. It hurts me, it hurts them. Stop that,” he stated.
Well, within the time since, quite a bit has modified for Ben. In July final 12 months, he tied the knot with Jennifer Lopez, and now he’s again within the limelight selling his new film, Air.
Sitting down with the Hollywood Reporter for a wide-ranging interview printed yesterday, the two-time Oscar winner expressed apprehension about being publicly susceptible after his feedback about his ex bought taken out of context.
“I view these things as land mines, where if you say one wrong thing, your career might be over,” he stated. “I had a really painful experience where I did an interview where I was really vulnerable, and the entire pickup was something that was not only not right, it was actually the opposite of what I meant.”
The author, Rebecca Keegan, adopted up by asking Ben if he was referring to his feedback to Howard Stern in 2021, prompting him to speak concerning the controversy in additional element than ever earlier than.
“The idea that I was blaming my wife for my drinking,” he clarified. “To be clear, my behavior is my responsibility entirely.”
Attempting to higher contextualize the unique quotes, Ben stated the purpose he was meaning to make was “a sad one” concerning the painfulness of his divorce.
“I was trying to say, “Hey, look, I was drinking too much, and the less happy you become, whether it’s your job, your marriage, it’s just that as your life becomes more difficult, if you’re doing things to fill a hole that aren’t healthy, you’re going to start doing more of those things,’” he stated.
Saying that he felt he’d been “pretty articulate” together with his phrases, Ben referred to as out the retailers that he claims “deliberately mischaracterized it in order to make it clickbait.”
“It didn’t matter how many times I said, ‘I do not feel this way. I’m telling you, I don’t blame my ex-wife for my alcoholism,’” he mirrored on the backlash on the time.
Coming again to the current, Ben stated that his present spouse, Jennifer Lopez, provided him some phrases of recommendation on the subject of being susceptible within the public eye.
“It’s hard. But anyway, so [Jennifer] tells me today, ‘Relax, be yourself. Have fun. You’re actually a fun guy who is real and genuine and you just seem so serious,’” he stated, earlier than occurring to reward the singer.
“But as in many things, she’s really right. And she loves me. She’s looking out for me. She’s trying to help me. So it’s like, maybe I ought to fucking listen to her,” he concluded.
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