Everything Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Have Said About Their Divorce and Coparenting

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Everything Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Have Said About Their Divorce and Coparenting

Amicable as ever! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have been coparenting pros since announcing their split in June 2015. The exes, who share Violet, Seraphina and Samuel, haven’t shied away from addressing their family life and close friendship. “Ben and Jen have immense love and respect for one another,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2018. “They still coparent together and that will always come first. He will always be supportive of any decision she makes and ultimately just wants her to be happy.” The pair met in the summer of 2001 and got married in June 2005. They announced their split in June 2015 via a joint statement, reading, “After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce. We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to coparenting our children whose privacy we ask to be respected during this difficult time. This will be our only comment on this private, family matter. Thank you for understanding.” [jwplayer z6wWuStN-zhNYySv2] Their divorce was finalized in October 2018. Affleck made headlines in February 2020 when he admitted that his failed marriage to Garner was “the biggest regret of my life.” He even grew emotional recalling that he “didn’t want to get divorced” or “be a split family with my children.” Amid his frank confessions about the breakup, a source revealed to Us that their coparenting relationship is “always a work in progress,” despite how friendly they seem. “Things come up between them, but they are committed to doing the best they can for the kids,” the insider said. “They stay on top of things and have a lot of meetings and check-ins. They want to be the best parents they can for the kids. If they have differences, they keep it to themselves and don’t let it have an impact. They always put on happy faces for the kids and put their well-being first.” An insider told Us in May 2020 that Garner and Affleck “have worked hard to get in a good place with each other.” Scroll down to revisit their most heartfelt quotes since ending their 10-year marriage. [podcast_block]

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March 2016

“I am a giant fan of Jennifer. She’s just a fabulous person. She’s just a wonderful person,” the Gone Girl star told CBS This Morning in March 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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March 2016

“Jen is a superhero mom,” Affleck gushed to E! News in March 2016. “She is an amazing mother and I’m really lucky to have her as a partner to coparent these kids with. We try our best, we put them first and that’s what we do.”

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March 2016

The 13 Going on 30 star opened up about her divorce in a candid interview with Vanity Fair in March 2016. “I didn’t marry the big, fat movie star. I married him and I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him and I would again. You can’t have three babies and so much of what we had. He’s the love of my life. He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous,” she raved. “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. … It’s not Ben’s job to make me happy. The main thing is these kids — and we’re completely inline with what we hope for them.”

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March 2016

“Jen’s great. She’s a great person,” the Justice League actor told the New York Times in March 2016. “We’re on great terms.”

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March 2016

Affleck told Ellen DeGeneres in March 2016 that he and Garner are “good friends.” He added: “We’re doing our best and our kids are fabulous and we’re working our best for them. And what else are you gonna do?”

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August 2016

“We are definitely a modern family,” the Miracles From Heaven actress dished to Today in August 2016. “We’re doing really well. … He and I are great friends. It has to be [about being a team]. You don’t have a choice.”

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October 2016

“We do our best. We try our best,” Affleck told Entertainment Tonight in October 2016, noting that his “areas of expertise” with his kids are “spotty at best. Not homework.”

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June 2018

Garner sent Affleck love on Father’s Day in 2018. “Our kids are lucky to have a dad who looks at them the way you look at them and loves them the way you love them, @benaffleck. #happyfathersday #threeluckykids #haveagreatday,” she wrote via Instagram. 

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July 2018

“Looking back on that, I really feel the stress of it. I really — I could cry talking about it,” Garner admitted on CBS Sunday Morning about the end of her marriage playing out in the public eye. “What I think I’ve learned is that the scrutiny in your private life puts a pressure to make something happen. You feel a pressure to hurry up and get married, ‘cause you think that’ll end the, ‘Are they engaged? Are they not?’ And that’s true in reverse, as well. If you are — if there is any inkling of trouble, or if the tabloids decide there’s trouble, it can create trouble. But to be honest, public scrutiny, everyone says, ‘Oh, you’ve had to go through this in public.’ The public isn’t what’s hard. What’s hard is going through it.” 

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March 2019

Affleck told Hoda Kotb that he “of course” still loves Garner in March 2019. “She’s wonderful. Somebody’s the mother of your kids, they’re going to be the most important, central person in your life, and that’s good,” he said. 

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May 2019

Affleck paid tribute to Garner and his mother, Christine Anne Bold, on Mother’s Day in 2019. “Happy Mother’s Day to the two incredible mothers who have shown me the meaning of love,” he wrote via Instagram. 

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February 2020

“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” Affleck told The New York Times in February 2020. “Shame is really toxic. 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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February 2020

Affleck got candid about how his substance abuse impacted his split from Garner during an interview on Good Morning America in February 2020.

“I never thought that I was gonna get divorced. 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 told Diane Sawyer. “And it upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was. And that was so painful and so disappointing in myself. … Divorce is very painful and alcoholism is very painful. They just are.”

He continued: “If there’s something that your child is suffering, that’s a level of pain that is not easily gotten past, not easily forgiven, not easily forgotten. And it’s hard. You’re not going to avoid causing your kids pain, all pain. Pain is part of life. I take some comfort in that.”

Sawyer also read a note that the actor wrote about Garner at the end of the interview, which read, “What I want to say publicly and privately is, “Thank you. Thank you for being thoughtful, considerate, responsible, and a great mom and person.”

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March 2021

Garner initially told Vanity Fair in February 2016 that she had “lost the dream of dancing with [her] husband at [her] daughter’s wedding” following her divorce. However, five years later, she signaled that things had changed. “When our kids get married, we’ll dance, I know that now,” she said in a Hollywood Reporter cover story. “We’ll boogaloo and have a great time. I don’t worry about that anymore.”

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May 2021

Affleck paid tribute to his ex-wife in honor of Mother’s Day. “So happy to share these kids with you. Luckiest parents in the world. Thanks for all the good you do,” he gushed via Instagram. “Happy Mother’s Day. Love, their Dad.”

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December 2021

During an interview with Howard Stern, Affleck said that he and his ex-wife mutually decided to end their marriage, despite what reports at the time may have indicated. "The truth was, we took our time, we made a decision, we grew apart," the actor explained. "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."

Despite the fact that their romantic relationship ended, the director said the pair still maintained "respect" for one another. "Did we have moments of tension? Did we have disagreements over the custody? Was stuff difficult for us? Did we get angry? Yes," he continued. "But fundamentally it was always underpinned with respect. I knew she was a good mom. I hope that she knew that I was a good dad. I was. I had to get sober — I knew that too — and I acknowledged that. I said, 'You're right. I've got to quit drinking.'"

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December 2021

After making headlines for saying he was "trapped" when married to Garner, Affleck said his quotes were taken out of context. However, he also noted that his kids' opinions are the only ones that truly matter to him.

"My life is better and I'm happier the more I'm around them," he told Good Morning America at the time. "Because the only biography that really means anything is written on the hearts of your kids. I'll be long dead, and someone is going to ask my kids, 'What was your dad like?' And that's when I'll know what my life was worth."

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March 2023

Affleck further clarified his comments to Stern during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"I was trying to say, 'Hey, look, I was drinking too much, and the less happy you become, whether it's your job, your marriage, it's just that as your life becomes more difficult, if you're doing things to fill a hole that aren't healthy, you're going to start doing more of those things.' I think I was pretty articulate about that,” he said. “It didn't matter how many times I said, 'I do not feel this way. I'm telling you, I don't blame my ex-wife for my alcoholism.' So, yeah. It's hard."

The Argo director added of Garner: "We loved each other. We care about each other. We have respect for each other."