Getting divorced is never easy—but getting divorced when you’re a celebrity is even harder.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were married for 10 years and had three kids before they separated in 2015 and officially divorced in 2018. However, the details of what went on to cause the parting of ways have only erupted recently—and it hasn’t been pretty.
In an interview with Howard Stern, Affleck reached mentioned that he felt “trapped” married to Garner. He said that he didn’t feel happy, but also didn’t want to leave because of his kids—so what was he supposed to do?
We’re not sure of the right answer, but what we wound up doing was turning to alcohol. “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I am not happy,” he said. “What do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
He did go to rehab once he realized his drinking was out of control. But he said that if he were still married to Garner, that his drinking probably would’ve gotten more out of hand.
“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,” he said.
Affleck got a lot of flack for these comments. So much so that he felt like he needed to clarify what he actually meant on the show. On an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, he explained how his comments were blown way out of proportion.
“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 went on to explain how much the words really hurt him. “Being the subject of that is just the cost of doing business a little bit as an actor,” he said. “But not with my kids. Don’t do that. It’s wrong. It hurts me. It hurts them. Stop that.” He added: “What I believe and I would never want my kids to think that I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”
Check out the entire interview below!
What do you think Affleck actually meant to say? Do you believe him when he says that he’d never say things like that?