ON THE ‘BIGGEST REGRET’ OF BEN’S LIFE
In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Affleck reflected on his own mistakes while discussing his film The Way Back, admitting, “The biggest regret of my life is this divorce.”
“Shame is really toxic,” he continued. “There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”
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ON HOW HIS DRINKING AFFECTED THEIR MARRIAGE
“I drank relatively normally for a long time,” he told the New York Times. “What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”
“It’s not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures — the relapses — and beat myself up,” he continued. “I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”
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ON WHAT HE ‘DIDN’T WANT’
During an interview for Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, the TV journalist read aloud a note Affleck wrote to his ex-wife.
“What I want to say publicly and privately is, ‘Thank you. Thank you for being thoughtful, considerate, responsible, and a great mom and person,’ ” Sawyer read.
During the interview, Affleck admitted that he never thought his battle with addiction would result in his and Garner’s divorce.
“I didn’t want to get divorced, I didn’t want to be a divorced person, I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children,” he shared. “It upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was and that was so painful and so disappointing. In myself.”
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ON JEN’S LEADERSHIP POST-SPLIT
“I am a giant fan of Jennifer. She’s just a fabulous person. She’s just a wonderful person,” Affleck told CBS This Morning of their co-parenting dynamic in 2016. “She’s a great mother. She’s a real talent. She … has set such a good example and a lead that I follow. She’s somebody that I admire and respect and remain excellent friends with.”
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ON JEN’S PARENTING SKILLS
“Jen is a superhero mom,” Affleck told E! in 2016. “She is an amazing mother and I’m really lucky to have her as a partner to co-parent these kids with. We try our best, we put them first and that’s what we do.”
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ON MARRYING BEN
“I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again,” Garner told Vanity Fair. “You can’t have these three babies and so much of what we had. He’s the love of my life.”
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ON SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THEIR DIVORCE
“She’s allowed to talk about it … She felt like she wanted to discuss it and get it out there and get it over with, so she could say, ‘Look, I already talked about it – I don’t want to do it again,’ ” Affleck told the Times.
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ON RUMORS OF INFIDELITY
“We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny,” Garner told Vanity Fair. “She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation. Bad judgment? Yes.”
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ON IGNORING THE SCRUTINY OF THEIR SPLIT
“Ben says, ‘Oh, you just don’t care,’ and I say, ‘No, it’s the opposite.’ It hurts me so much, and I care so much,” Garner said.
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ON THEIR CURRENT DYNAMIC
“Jen’s great. She’s a great person,” Ben Affleck told The New York Times. “We’re on great terms. I just saw her this morning, so that’s the reality that I live in.”
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ON THEIR MARRIED LIFE
“It was a real marriage,” she said. “It wasn’t for the cameras. And it was a huge priority for me to stay in it. And that did not work.”
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ON HAVING THEIR PRIVATE LIFE IN THE SPOTLIGHT
“It never seems like a great time to have your privacy invaded,” Affleck said. “Obviously this is a particularly hard time.”
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ON KEEPING AN AMICABLE RELATIONSHIP
“We’re good friends and we’re doing our best and our kids are fabulous and we’re working our best for them,” Affleck told Ellen DeGeneres. “And what else are you gonna do?”
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ON JEN’S PASSION
“She’s in Reno. Doing what she believes in, which is great,” Affleck told Extra, adding that Garner was campaigning for Hillary Clinton at the time. “[I] think it’s awesome. And I’m so impressed by it — her and everything she does.”
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ON JEN AS A MOM
“[She’s] the world’s greatest mom,” the Live by Night actor-director said in a Times Talk.
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ON THEIR NEW FAMILY STRUCTURE
“We are definitely a modern family,” the actress said while promoting her movie Nine Lives. “We’re doing really well.”
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