Photo via Karon Liu/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0), Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
December 15, 2021, 1:56 pm
Fans of Jennifer Garner were not pleased to hear that Ben Affleck appeared to blame his former marriage to the actress, and potentially the actress herself, for his struggles with alcohol addiction from 2005 to 2015, saying that he felt “trapped” and the only escape was drinking. Affleck expressed this during an interview with shock jock Howard Stern, where he said that he “probably still would’ve been drinking” if he hadn’t divorced Garner and instead stayed for the sake of their children.
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“I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’” he said. “And what I did was drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
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Affleck went so far as to claim that he “started” drinking because he felt trapped in the marriage, but many have pointed out the fact that the actor had struggled with alcohol addiction long before he married Garner. The Afflecks have a significant family history of addiction and alcoholism in particular, and Ben’s own mother first became concerned about his drinking when he was only 15.
He went into inpatient treatment for his alcohol addiction in 2001 and seemed to maintain sobriety for a couple years before he tried to transition into what he considered “normal” drinking. Unfortunately, this escalated once again into full-blown alcoholism and he returned to a treatment program in 2017.
Garner fans have also widely pointed out that she was very supportive of Affleck during their marriage when it came to his addiction, getting him to go to AA meetings and helping him to get sober for periods during that decade. Even after their divorce, Garner continued to help him in this respect, having driven him to rehab in both 2017 and 2018 after expressing that he needed help.
Affleck may not have intended to place blame on his ex-wife for his drinking during that time but rather the general societal pressure to stay together, but the way he worded his statement has been taken by many as blaming Garner for a problem he’s had for most of his life. He did, however, attempt to dispel old rumors about their divorce, explaining that it was amicable and that he still loves and respects her.
“The truth was we took our time, we made our decision … We grew apart,” he told Stern. “We had a marriage that didn’t work, this happens, with somebody that I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.”
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Garner fans, however, are stuck on the part where he appeared to blame her for his drinking problems in spite of everything she did for him.
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So casually cruel in the name of being honest! Pretty shitty. He was drinking long before her. She stood by him after he cheated. She takes care of the kids while he’s off living the JLo lifestyle. Jennifer Garner saved Ben Affleck’s life and career. He should show more grace. https://t.co/CQGvGozuIV
— Colleen McNamara
(@cmcubfan) December 15, 2021
*First Published: December 15, 2021, 1:56 pm
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