As if being married to Ben Affleck for more than a decade, and his horrible back tattoo for part of that time, wasn’t bad enough, now Jennifer Garner has to suffer the indignation of Affleck discussing the reasons behind the collapse of their marriage. Earlier this week, the Surviving Christmas star chatted with Howard Stern about his a wide range of topics, including his struggles with alcohol, which he basically blamed on his ex-wife. Ick!
While most people who heard Affleck whine about how feeling “trapped” in his marriage was “part of why I started drinking” thought it was a bad look for the two-time Oscar winner, Garner’s friends are even more pissed off—as is Affleck’s former and now once again current partner, Jennifer Lopez. According to Page Six, people who know both Affleck and Garner are pretty disgusted by the casual way in which he blamed his alcohol abuse on his ex-wife, who reportedly staged an intervention and drove his ass to rehab in 2018—all this when they weren’t even married anymore.
“It’s disgusting,” someone who knows the former couple told 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.”
A second “well-placed source,” who didn’t want to be named, told Page Six that “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.”
Meanwhile, other sources tell Page Six that Lopez—the original ennifer in Bennifer—is reportedly also bothered by Affleck’s comments. “[She] is pissed,” the source said. “She is getting pulled into this because she is dating him. She doesn’t want to be dragged into this.”
Also complicating the matter, writes Page Six, is the fact that Ben and the two Jens plus their kids have all been trying to spend time together. “She has met Jennifer Garner,” the source said. “She is trying to get to know her and Ben’s kids. It’s reckless and cavalier of him.”
While Garner has not addressed the situation publicly, Life & Style is claiming that Garner thought her ex’s comments were a “slap in the face.”
“Jen isn’t particularly happy with Ben’s wording on the subject of why they divorced,” the source said. “He gave an interview saying he felt ‘trapped’ in the marriage, Jen wouldn’t have used that phrase or even opened up publicly like that. It was disrespectful.”
Affleck, meanwhile, is doing damage control. On Wednesday night he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his new movie, the unintentionally ironically titled The Tender Bar, where he claimed that his comments were taken way out of context, saying:
“One of these websites had done the clickbait thing. I looked on it, and they had literally taken the conversation that I had had for two hours and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I had said. I had gone on… said how much we respected each other, cared about each other, cared about our kids, put them first. It said that I had blamed my ex-wife for my alcoholism, that I was trapped in this marriage, just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy.”
Yes—yes, it did. Maybe if Affleck were a better actor, more people would buy his defense of the interview.
(Via Page Six)