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Ben Affleck Would Never ‘Say a Bad Thing’ About Jennifer Garner, Slams ‘Out of Context’ Comments
Clearing the air! Ben Affleck clarified his “out of context” comments about ex-wife Jennifer Garner and assured he would never “say a bad thing” about the mother of his children during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, December 15.
“When it’s about my kids, I have to just draw a line and be clear — it’s not true,” the Last Duel actor, 49, told the late night host. “I don’t believe that. It’s the exact opposite of who I am, what I believe and I would never want my kids to think that I would ever say a bad thing about their mom.”
The Argo director added, “Being the subject of [something like this] is just the cost of doing business a little bit, but not with my kids. It’s wrong. It hurts me.”
Jennifer, 49, and Ben were married from 2005 to 2018 and share three children — daughters Violet, Seraphina and son Samuel. On December 14, the Town actor sat down for a rare interview with Howard Stern and talked about his previous relationship, coparenting and his past drinking problem.
During the two-hour sit-down, Ben opened up about how the unhappiness in his marriage led to him abusing alcohol.
“That was part of why I started drinking alcohol, I was trapped,” the Triple Frontier star told the SiriusXM host. “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I am not happy. What do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
While clarifying his past comments, the Good Will Hunting actor also noted that during his interview on The Howard Stern Show, he gushed over “how much [he and Jennifer] respected each other and cared about each other and love [their] kids.”
That being said, the Justice League actor admitted to Jimmy Kimmel that the buzz about his interview “made [him] out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy.”
Ben confessed he was surprised by the outcome of the “cool, long-form” interview because he was “really happy” with how his chat with Howard went.
“We talked a lot about family and divorce and alcoholism and struggling with real things, and how you have to be accountable,” the Massachusetts native explained. “And [we talked about] how I work with my ex-wife and how I’m so proud that we work together for our kids the best that we can for them … I thought, ‘Wow, I should do more honest, exploratory, self-evaluating things.”
Since Ben has cleared the air publicly, he hopefully has talked it over with his ex, as well. After his Howard Stern interview began circulating, a source told In Touch that the Elektra actress wasn’t “particularly happy” with the producer’s “wording” about their divorce.
“Jen wouldn’t have used that phrase or even opened up publicly like that. It was disrespectful,” the insider said.
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