Jennifer Garner’s Close Friends Reportedly Trashing Ben Affleck Over Howard Stern Comments

Friends of Jennifer Garner are reportedly rallying around the 13 Going on 30 star in the wake of her ex-husband Ben Affleck’s interview with Howard Stern. In the interview, Affleck made comments that seemingly blamed Garner for his alcoholism, painting a gloomy picture of an unhappy marriage. “It’s disgusting,” one industry insider who knows the former couple Affleck and Garner said of Affleck’s comments to Page Six. “Jen has been the only one picking him up time and time again when he’s done horrible things — fallen off the wagon or worse. Jen stood by him because she loves him. This is the mother of his children.”

Another well-placed source told the publication “Anyone who knows addict behavior knows how untrue those comments could be for any addict, but particularly Ben. It’s one of the first tenets of AA not to place blame for your disease.”

Affleck told Stern he grew increasingly unhappy in the marriage and despite trying to stick things out for their kids, it became unbearable. In the interim, he says he turned to alcohol. When asked where he’d be on the sobriety scale if still married to Garner, he told Stern, “I probably still would’ve been drinking, adding, “Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped in the marriage. 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 continued.

Despite splitting in 2015, Garner told Vanity Fair in 2016 of Affleck: “He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous.” She eventually physically drove Affleck to rehab after their split in 2017.

Affleck and Garner met on the set of 2003’s Daredevil. He was engaged to Jennifer Lopez at the time but after their engagement was called off, he and Garner began to date. Garner and Affleck have three children: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9. Affleck rekindled his romance with Lopez earlier this year.

Lopez is reportedly “pissed” with Affleck. A separate source also alleged to Page Six that she feels the comments were in poor taste and a bad reflection of her. Another source also said that Lopez has worked hard to be friendly with Garner, even spending Halloween trick-or-treating with Garner, Affleck, her twins, and Garner and Affleck’s three children. 

Affleck insists his comments were taken out of context. He told Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night that the snippets gone viral were part of a larger two-hour interview. Per Affleck, the comments were more about him than Garner, with him adding he has never and will never bad-mouth her.