Ouch. Ben Affleck says he felt “trapped” in his marriage to Jennifer Garner — and thinks he wouldn’t have gotten sober had he stayed.
The Argo star claimed he was stuck in an unhappy relationship with his former Daredevil co-star and unable to walk away because of their children. He credited his 2018 divorce for saving him from spiraling with his addiction.
“We probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats. I probably still would’ve been drinking,” he reflected on his marriage struggle. “Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped.”
“I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
He insisted he and his ex did everything they could to work on their marriage before eventually deciding divorce was the best solution for them. “Ultimately, we tried, we tried, we tried because we had kids, but both of us felt like we didn’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage,” he explained.
After the couple announced their split in 2015, the actor was hit with infidelity rumors. He allegedly cheated on the actress with the couple’s nanny.
Now Affleck set the record straight, “Everything you read [in the news about the divorce] was bullshit. The truth was we took our time, we made our decision … We grew apart. We had a marriage that didn’t work. This happens. She’s somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.”
Despite the drama, he insisted they parted on good terms. “We did it amicably. We did our best. Did we have moments of tension? Did we have disagreements over custody? Was stuff difficult for us? Did we get angry? Yes, but fundamentally it was always underpinned with a respect,” he noted. “I knew she was a good mom. I always hoped she knew I was a good dad. I knew I was.”
He admitted he was initially hesitant to rekindle a romance with Jennifer Lopez after seeing the intense media scrutiny over his love life. “It crossed my mind for sure … My responsibility to my children is the highest responsibility I have, so I’m not going to do anything that’s painful or destructive to them if I can help it,” he said.
“That being said, my life affects them. I’ve already inflicted that on them. Me and their mom are celebrities and that’s hard,” he went on. “Let’s not bulls**t each other. That is a cross to bear. That’s an albatross already.”
Ben Affleck was determined to change after nearly losing his family because of his addictions.
“I’m lucky because I hit that point before I lost the things that were most important. Not my career or money – it was my relationship with my kids, and when I felt as if it impacted them, I recognized it,” he said. “It was the worst day of my life. I made amends … But since that day, I swear to Christ, I have not ever wanted to drink once.”
The actor checked into rehab in 2018. He was driven back into rehab by former wife the following year after he was spotted drunkenly stumbling out of a Halloween party. “Well, you know, it happens. It’s a slip, but I’m not going to let it derail me,” he admitted back then.
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