How Jennifer Garner Feels About Ben Affleck’s Brutally Honest Marriage Comments

Ben Affleck’s candid comments about his marriage to Jennifer Garner were a “slap in the face” to the Alias actress, an insider told InTouch Weekly after The Last Duel actor’s controversial interview with Howard Stern Tuesday. After reuniting with former fiancée Jennifer Lopez earlier this year, Affleck told Stern that part of why he started drinking during his marriage to Garner was because he felt “trapped.”

The Elektra actress reportedly thought the way her ex-husband, with whom she shares daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, 9, talked about their marriage and children was “disrespectful.” The inside source continued, “Jen isn’t particularly happy with Ben’s wording on the subject of why they divorced. …Jen wouldn’t have used that phrase [“trapped”] or even opened up publicly like that. It was disrespectful.”

Affleck did mention his children during the interview, saying that they were what kept him in an unhappy marriage and caused him to begin drinking. “I was like ‘I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’” he told Stern. “What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.” He later added, “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.”

The source continued of Affleck’s comments, “If you think about it, it’s kind of a slap in the face to Jen and their kids.” The Oscar-winning actor and director notably has struggled with addiction over the years, going to rehab in 2001, 2017 and 2018 – the year he and Garner finalized their divorce. 

Affleck also commented on the public perception of his divorce from Garner to Stern, saying everything that was in the media at the time was “bulls-t.” He continued, “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.” Affleck added that reuniting with Lopez since April has been “beautiful.” Garner, meanwhile, has been dating businessman John Miller on and off since 2018.