Ben Affleck Speaks Up About Jennifer Garner Controversy
Ben Affleck went on to Good Morning America and tried to clarify some of the recent comments he'd made about his marriage to Jennifer Garner
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Ben Affleck recently went on The Howard Stern show and had some, well, interesting things to say about his previous marriage with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. During the course of the conversation, there was a point at which it sure sounded like he was blaming their relationship for his bouts with alcoholism. It was an interesting admission from the actor, and some were confused about the implications of a statement like this, or even whether it was actually true. But apparently, some of those words were taken a bit out of context, at least the ones that went viral and Affleck is working to clear up exactly what he meant with the quote.
Following up the interview with Howard Stern, Ben Affleck went on to Good Morning America (via Cinemablend) and spoke at a little more at length on the subject, trying to clear up the original statement. For his part, the words referring to drinking too much surrounded the idea of feeling “trapped” in the marriage to Jennifer Garner and were part of a larger comment about how he was trying to work to keep it together because of his kids. In the course of the original with Stern part of what Affleck had said was, “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.”
But in talking to Good Morning America, Affleck, clearly annoyed, reminded everyone that this was just one snippet from a much bigger conversation about his life, relationship, and family status. The entire interview with Stern was a long one that lasted hours and dealt with a variety of topics about Affleck’s career and relationships. The piece about Garner was cherry-picked. In trying to clear it all up, Ben Affleck had this to say:
“And I looked on it, and they had literally taken a conversation I had had for two hours and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I said. I went on and said how much we respect each other, and care about each other, and cared about our kids and put them first. And they said I had blamed my ex-wife for my alcoholism and I was trapped in this marriage. Just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy.”
In the end, it’s important to understand that Ben Affleck was originally only talking about his own behavior around the divorce and separation from Jennifer Garner. He contextualized things that he did wrong in trying to deal with the situation. When isolated for just those couple of sentences, it had come across like she was the one driving him to drink. But in listening to the interview, and then these clarifying words to GMA, it was clear he was more taking responsibility for bad choices, ones made to try and keep closer to his family.
This all went down originally in 2018 when Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck divorced and the latter went into rehab. These days he’s in a high-profile relationship with Jennifer Lopez. The two had previously dated years ago but have been together over the past year.
On the acting and directing front, Ben Affleck has some other projects in the works. Following The Last Duel which was a box office disaster of a pretty high order, earning just $30 million on its reported $100 million budget, Affleck is looking to rebound in that respect. He’s set to direct Ghost Army and Witness for the Prosecution. He’ll also star in both. And of course, there is a return to the DC Extended Universe with the word that he is set to make an appearance in The Flash, possibly the last for his run in that world.
