Ben Affleck Admitted He ‘P****d’ Off His Girlfriends
Ben Affleck has been in the news as often for his romantic relationships as his professional career. He’s dated a who’s who of some of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelorettes and married two. However, Affleck once admitted that during his relationships, he “p****d” off his girlfriends.
Ben Affleck told Playboy he ‘p****d’ off his girlfriends
In 1999, Ben Affleck was interviewed for Playboy Magazine. At the time, the actor was in a relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow.
This interview came one year after Affleck and Matt Damon won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film Good Will Hunting. The actor released three films in 1999 and was one of the busiest actors in Hollywood by the time he sat down to talk about his on and off-camera life with the publication.
However, Affleck admitted that despite his flourishing professional career, he still had much to learn about relationships. He claimed many of his romantic endeavors ended badly.
Affleck said, “It’s not like I was a womanizer or physically abusive or psychologically abusive or whatever. It’s just that these relationships never ended well.”
He continued, “I think what happens is I end up wanting to be out of the relationship. If you get dissatisfied and unhappy and don’t say something, if you don’t deal with it right, then it just festers and stays there.”
“So instead of saying, ‘Look, don’t do that, please don’t act this way,’ I go along with it until I just don’t want to be in the relationship at all. Then I create some incident or do something or just don’t call. And then she’s p****d,” Affleck concluded.
Ben Affleck hoped to ‘grow out’ of his behavior
Within the context of the same interview, Ben Affleck said he hoped to “grow out” of that type of behavior when it came to handling conflict within his romantic relationships. He claimed fault for the end of the unions that fizzled out.
Affleck told Playboy that after a romance ended, he couldn’t “blame” a woman for their reaction to his actions. “And I can’t necessarily blame her at that point since I’ve developed such a passive-aggressive rage that I have no sympathy.”
He added that he would tell a woman that he didn’t call because she was “a nagging, shrewish harpy.” The actor hoped that this type of behavior was something he would “grow” out of.
But his comments didn’t sit well with fans. They shared their comments on social media about how they believe Affleck’s behavior hasn’t changed much in the years since the initial interview was published.
Fans called Affleck out on Reddit
A Reddit thread excerpted Ben Affleck’s 1999 Playboy interview, and the internet was unhappy with his commentary. Users of the social media site shared their thoughts about how the actor’s romantic missteps over the years.
One Redditor wrote, “If he’s talking about his issues but not doing any real work to fix them, then he’s simply a guy who likes to talk about himself.” Another added, “It must be tragic to go through 20 years continually making the same mistakes over and over again.”
Finally, a third fan wrote, “That right there is why he failed. He was hoping to just grow out of it, that he would just naturally stop feeling and acting that way with age.”
After dating Gwyneth Paltrow, Affleck became engaged to Jennifer Lopez. The couple flaunted their love affair in the music video for the song “Jenny From the Block.” However, the duo called off their wedding days before it was to take place.
Affleck rebounded with Jennifer Garner, with whom he would marry and have three children. The actor went on to date Lindsay Shookus and Shauna Sexton before falling for Ana de Armas.
A reunion with and subsequent marriage to Jennifer Lopez occurred in 2022. Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck in 2024.
