Anyone who has ever been married will tell you that marriage is not always easy. Anyone who has ever been divorced will tell you that getting divorced isn’t easy either. That’s why it’s really vital to make sure you really want to get married before making it legal.
We can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to get married and divorced in the public eye. Celebrity couples face a completely different level of drama and stress on their relationships. While some famous couples’ relationships stand the test of time, others do not. One example is the marriage of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.
Affleck and Garner started dating in 2004 and got married in 2005. Ten years and three kids later, they separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018. Those are the facts, but what really happened?
Affleck and Garner are still on a friendly basis for the sake of their children. They have been seen attending their children’s events together. They have also been more and more vocal about what it was like to be married to each other.
Garner has said that it was like a “circus” when she was married to Affleck. The fame and the resulting paparazzi made it nearly impossible for them to even try to have a normal life for their children.
Meanwhile, Affleck recently told Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show that he felt “trapped” when he was married to Garner. He explained that he was not happy but felt that he couldn’t leave because of the kids. As a result, he turned to alcohol. He said, “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I am not happy. What do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
After their divorce, Affleck went to rehab. He knew he needed to stop drinking. He had been struggling with alcohol abuse long before he even started dating Garner.
Affleck does not regret getting divorced. He thinks he would be struggling with alcohol if he hadn’t left the marriage. He explained, “And you know what, we probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats. I’d probably still be drinking — which is part of why I started drinking alcohol — because I was trapped.”
Affleck is no longer “trapped” in his marriage to Garner. More recently, he has rekindled the flame with his old girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
Today Ben appears happy with his new wife Jennifer Lopez. He has also developed a level relationship with Jennifer Garner as they co-parent their three chrildren: Violet Anne, 17, Seraphina Rose, 13, and Samuel, 10.