The actor-director says negative comments regarding what he said about his ex-wife are 'the opposite of who I am.'
Ben Affleck is clearing up his recent comments about his marriage to Jennifer Garner. Earlier this week, the Tender Bar star appeared on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show and discussed the time he spent with the 49-year-old actress and how alcoholism affected his marriage. After receiving some backlash on social media regarding his comments, the 49-year-old Oscar winner walked back his remarks during Wednesday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“I was really happy with it,” he told the host of his interview with Stern, adding that he thought the two-hour conversation was “meaningful.”
Affleck said that he spent the interview praising the time he spent with his ex-wife. “I had gone on about how much we respected each other and how we cared about each other and cared about our kids and put them first,” he said. “And went through our stuff. And they said that I had blamed by ex-wife for my alcoholism and that I was trapped in this marriage and just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy.”
Affleck said he didn’t have a problem being the “sad Batman” or “Dunkin Donuts” meme guy, but that when it comes to his family, “I have to draw a line and be clear."
"That’s not true. I don’t believe that. It’s the exact opposite of who I am," he said of the negative remarks made about him on social media. "What I believe and I would never want my kids to think that I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”
Kimmel noted that it seemed to “upset" the star. Affleck concluded, “It hurt my feelings. And even being the subject of that is just the cost of doing business a little bit as an actor. But not with my kids. Don’t do that. It’s wrong. It hurts me. It hurts them. Stop that.”
On Tuesday, the actor-director sat down with Stern and recalled the circumstances that led to his divorce from Garner, who he shares children, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12 and Samuel, 9. After slamming the “f**ing terrible lies” about their marriage and split, he added, "The truth was, we took our time, we made a decision, we grew apart. We had a marriage that did not work. This happens. It is somebody I love and respect, but to whom I should not be married any longer."
He continued, "And then we said, 'You know what? We tried. We tried, because we had kids. And then both of us felt like, 'We don't want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage.'"
Affleck went on to note that had he and Garner not ended their relationship, the pair "would have ended up at each other's throats" and that he "would probably still be drinking."
Garner and Affleck were married in 2005 and were divorced in 2018, a decision he says was "amicable" for both of them.
On Wednesday, Affleck had the support of his current girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, who escorted him to JKL. Lopez was also a topic of conversation on Stern's show, and the A-lister gave his reasons for why the two first split up all those years ago.
Check out the video below for more on Affleck and Lopez.
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