Jennifer Garner Revealed How She Was Able to Stay Friends With Ben Affleck After Their Divorce
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck divorced in 2018, 13 years after their 2005 wedding. While their separation was painful for both parties, they’ve managed to maintain a friendly relationship over the years. Garner said that the way her children react when Affleck is around has helped her view him as a good friend.
Jennifer Garner said her kids helped her stay friends with Ben Affleck
In 2015, after 10 years of marriage, Garner and Affleck announced that they were separating. Three years later, they finalized their divorce. Garner said that the year after they decided to separate was an incredibly difficult one for her. Still, she didn’t hold negative feelings towards her ex-husband.
“Of course this is not what I imagined when I ran down the beach [at our wedding], but it is where I am,” she told Vanity Fair in 2016. “We still have to help each other get through this. He’s still the only person who really knows the truth about things. And I’m still the only person that knows some of his truths.”
She said that it’s difficult not to view the father of her three children as an important person in her life. Her kids loved him so much that she knew he would continue to be a friend.
“It’s not Ben’s job to make me happy,” she said. “The main thing is these kids—and we’re completely in line with what we hope for them. Sure, I lost the dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter’s wedding. But you should see their faces when he walks through the door. And if you see your kids love someone so purely and wholly, then you’re going to be friends with that person.”
She said she still had a high opinion of him
After they split, Garner began to hear rumors that Affleck had had an affair with the family’s nanny. These stories stung, but they didn’t completely shake her high opinion of Affleck. She said she would still go back and marry him if she could choose.
“I didn’t marry the big fat movie star; I married him,” she said. “And I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can’t have these three babies and so much of what we had. He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that?”
She said she saw Affleck as a brilliant person, but admitted he was a complicated one.
“He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous,” she said. “He’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.”
Jennifer Garner has met with Ben Affleck amid rumors of his divorce from Jennifer Lopez
After his separation from Garner, Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Lopez. Recently, the couple has faced divorce rumors. Through this, Garner has supported her ex-husband. On Father’s Day, Garner spent the day with Affleck. This has reportedly begun to bother her current boyfriend, John Miller.
“Jen is such a caring and wonderful woman and mother and there is nothing but a deep friendship and bond between her and Ben,” a source told The Daily Mail. “John wants nothing more than for Ben to be okay, but it isn’t his girlfriend’s responsibility to play babysitter to him. That is for Ben to figure out on his own and for his wife to handle. It isn’t Jen’s responsibility, and he has told her this.”
