Their kids come first. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner reunited on Saturday, February 27, to celebrate their son Samuel’s fourth birthday with a superhero-themed birthday party. The exes got together just one day after Garner’s revealing Vanity Fair interview was released, laying bare her feelings about the Oscar winner and their split.
A source tells Us Weekly that Affleck was in attendance at the party at Garner’s L.A. home along with “lots of moms, dads and siblings.” Reese Witherspoon‘s son Tennessee was also a guest (dressed as Captain America!), as was Garner’s former Alias costar Victor Garber, and Kate Hudson‘s kids attended with a nanny.
Affleck kicked off Oscars weekend just hours after Garner’s interview was released by hanging out with his best bud, Matt Damon, at the William Morris Endeavor pre-Oscar party on Friday, February 26.
The Batman v Superman star, 43, wore a navy blue three-piece suit for the fete as he and Damon, 45, spent a lot of the night chatting together at the star-studded event.
Garner, 43, finally broke her silence following the couple’s split last June in a candid interview with the fashion magazine. Us Weekly broke the news that Affleck was seeing their former nanny Christine Ouzounian, and Garner touched on the liaison.
“Let me just tell you something. We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation,” Garner told Vanity Fair. “Bad judgment? Yes. It’s not great for your kids for [a nanny] to disappear from their lives.” She admitted she’s “had to have conversations,” with the couple’s three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel, “about the meaning of ‘scandal.'”
But despite the heartache, she doesn’t regret her time with Affleck.
“I didn’t marry the big fat movie star; I married him,” the Miracles From Heaven actress told the magazine. “And I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can’t have these three babies and so much of what we had. He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous. He’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.”
The former couple has remained amicable for the sake of the kids since their split, spending Christmas and even Valentine’s Day weekend together as a family.
In the interview, Garner also managed to get in a tiny jab at Affleck for the giant phoenix tattoo that he got on his back after they broke up.
“You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart,’” the West Virginia native said. “A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.”
