Ben Affleck mirrored on the “intentionally mischaracterized” feedback he made about his relationship with alcohol all through his marriage to Jennifer Garner.
For context, Ben and Jennifer received married in 2005, and welcomed three kids collectively earlier than asserting their cut up in 2015.
Their divorce was in the end finalized in 2018, and within the years since, Ben and Jennifer look to have maintained a robust and pleasant coparenting relationship to the good thing about 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 therapy for his dependancy 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 intervals, and has beforehand opened up about how his dependancy was one of many principal causes of their cut up, saying in 2020 that he began consuming “an increasing number of” as their marriage was “falling aside,” which solely led to “extra marital issues.”
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 top of their 10-year relationship.
“The reality was we took our time, we made the choice, we grew aside,” he mentioned of the wedding breakdown. “We had a wedding that did not work.”
“We tried as a result of we had youngsters,” he continued. “We didn’t need it to be the mannequin of marriage for the children. We did our greatest. I knew she was a superb mother, and I hoped she knew I used to be a superb dad.”
Occurring to speak about his alcohol dependancy extra explicitly, Ben advised the host that if he and Jennifer have been nonetheless married he’d “most likely nonetheless be consuming.”
“A part of why I began consuming alcohol was as a result of I felt trapped,” he mentioned. “I used to be like ‘I can not depart due to my youngsters, however I am not joyful. What do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and go to sleep on the sofa, which turned out to not be the answer.”
Given how a lot Ben had beforehand praised Jennifer for her love and help throughout his restoration, folks discovered it surprising and disappointing that he’d seemingly recommend she was in any strategy to blame for his dependancy.
In actual fact, the backlash grew to become so intense that the actor was compelled to deal with the criticism throughout an look on Jimmy Kimmel Reside a number of days later, the place seemed visibly emotional as he insisted that he’d by no means “say a nasty phrase” about his ex.
“I had gone on and mentioned how a lot we respect one another and cared about one another, and cared about our youngsters and put them first and went by way of our stuff,” he defined, saying that the quotes taken out of context made him seem like an “terrible man.”
“It’s the precise reverse of who I’m, what I consider,” he mentioned of the accusations that he’d “blamed” Jennifer. “I might by no means need my youngsters to assume I might ever say a nasty phrase about their mother. As a result of I by no means had, I by no means would.”
Visibly damage and pissed off, he concluded by saying that being the topic of media scrutiny “is simply kind of the price of doing enterprise as an actor,” however that he has an obligation to guard his household.
“Not with my youngsters. Don’t try this. It’s fallacious. It hurts me, it hurts them. Cease that,” he mentioned.
Properly, within the time since, lots has modified for Ben. In July final yr, 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 revealed yesterday, the two-time Oscar winner expressed apprehension about being publicly weak after his feedback about his ex received taken out of context.
“I view this stuff as land mines, the place in case you say one fallacious factor, your profession could be over,” he mentioned. “I had a extremely painful expertise the place I did an interview the place I used to be actually weak, and the whole pickup was one thing that was not solely not proper, it was really the alternative 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 in regards to the controversy in additional element than ever earlier than.
“The concept I used to be blaming my spouse for my consuming,” he clarified. “To be clear, my habits is my duty solely.”
Making an attempt to higher contextualize the unique quotes, Ben mentioned the purpose he was desiring to make was “a tragic one” in regards to the painfulness of his divorce.
“I used to be attempting to say, “Hey, look, I used to be consuming an excessive amount of, and the much less joyful you grow to be, whether or not it’s your job, your marriage, it’s simply that as your life turns into harder, in case you’re doing issues to fill a gap that aren’t wholesome, you’re going to begin doing extra of these issues,’” he mentioned.
Saying that he felt he’d been “fairly articulate” along with his phrases, Ben known as out the shops that he claims “intentionally mischaracterized it to be able to make it clickbait.”
“It didn’t matter what number of instances I mentioned, ‘I don’t really feel this fashion. 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 mentioned that his present spouse, Jennifer Lopez, provided him some phrases of recommendation on the subject of being weak within the public eye.
“It’s onerous. However anyway, so [Jennifer] tells me at the moment, ‘Chill out, be your self. Have enjoyable. You’re really a enjoyable man who’s actual and real and also you simply appear so severe,’” he mentioned, earlier than occurring to reward the singer.
“However as in lots of issues, she’s actually proper. And she or he loves me. She’s looking for me. She’s attempting to assist me. So it’s like, possibly I must fucking hearken to her,” he concluded.