(NOTE LANGUAGE) Ben Affleck‘s battle with alcoholism has played out in the public eye, but he made it personal in a new conversation on Sirius/XM’s The Howard Stern Show.
Affleck told Stern he “probably still would have been drinking” were he still married to his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. The pair were married from 2005 to 2018,
“Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped,” says the 49-year-old actor. “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
Affleck says that he and Garner “tried” to make it work “because we had kids, but…we didn’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage.”
Ben called tabloid coverage of their divorce “Bulls***,” adding, “…We had a marriage that didn’t work. This happens. She’s somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.”
He said they tried their best to split “amicably,” but “…Did we get angry? Yes, but fundamentally it was always underpinned with a respect. I knew she was a good mom. I always hoped she knew I was a good dad. I knew I was.”
Affleck admitted his kids were the reason he quit drinking. “[W]hen I felt as if it impacted them…It was the worst day of my life…But since that day, I swear to Christ, I have not ever wanted to drink once.”
Affleck and Garner share three children: 16-year-old Violet, Seraphina, 12, and 9-year-old Samuel.
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