A new kind of normal. When Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck started a family, they had to adapt to life with little privacy.
The Peppermint actress, 46, reflected on raising three children with ex-husband Affleck, also 46, in the public eye in a piece for WSJ Magazine’s March Women’s Style Issue.
“How do you adapt to your career? That’s a big question. Being someone who is well known requires an enormous adaption. Who am I now? How do I go through the world? Then there’s having children and, in my case, a career that’s a very selfish one,” Garner, who shares Violet, 13, Seraphina, 10, and Samuel, 6, with the Justice League actor, wrote. “The combination of those things is the largest adaption of all. When I had kids, I started considering how jobs worked for my family. How much am I going to ask of my partner and kids? What’s worth it and what isn’t?”
The 13 Going on 30 star and the Gone Girl actor learned to shield their children from the spotlight to the best of their abilities. “Something Ben and I used to say to each other all the time is, ‘We have to adapt.’ We were surrounded by paparazzi,” Garner explained. “There were so many things you wouldn’t expect. We’d be left alone at Disneyland and then we would be at a park in Santa Monica. But if you love something, you’ll do whatever you need to do.”
Garner and Affleck announced their separation in June 2015 and finalized their divorce in October 2018. The Argo director briefly dated Playboy model Shauna Sexton in the summer of 2018, while Garner has since moved on with businessman John Miller.
Us Weekly broke the news in October that the Camping actress had been seeing the Cali Group CEO for several months. “They are more in love than ever,” a source exclusively told Us in January, noting that Garner “admires John because he is just normal.”
Added the insider: “No one would be surprised if they got engaged by summer. John has discussed marrying Jen.”
