Ben Affleck Talks About Previous Marriage

Ben Affleck recently spoke to Howard Stern about his former marriage to actress, Jennifer Garner. Many felt he expressed himself somewhat insensitively. He said, “That was part of why I started drinking alcohol—I was trapped," 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.” 

Fans and supporters were outraged by his comment basically blaming Garner for his drinking problems, then Affleck was invited out to Jimmy Kimmel Live to set the record straight. During the show he told Jimmy ,"And then I started seeing all this stuff come up on Twitter," he continued. "They had literally taken the conversation that I had for two hours, and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I said." He then went on to explain that he would never want to be seen that way, that it is the exact opposite of the person that he is today and who he is becoming. He also didn’t want his children thinking that he would ever say anything bad about their mom or create any type of drama surrounding her.

When he said these words about his ex, people weren’t so much concerned with how Garner was going to react, but how his current girlfriend Jenifer Lopez was going to react. Just several months earlier, Affleck and Jennifer Lopez had gotten back together and were rekindling a relationship from 17 years earlier.

“Ben's interview with Howard Stern didn't really put too much of a strain on their relationship. They understand that things like this happen sometimes, and words can get misconstrued,"  a source told Marie Claire. The source goes on to say that things between them and their families are organic. They respect each other and get along well.

Lopez now looks back on their earlier relationship and says that the end of their engagement in 2004 was due to all the public scrutiny surrounding them. “It’s one of those things that you bury deeply so you can move on and get about your business," Lopez said.

The performer went on to explain that despite being happy together the public scrutiny was detrimental to her relationship with Ben. “It’s funny because Ben and I were together, and we were so in love. It was one of the happiest times of my life,” she said. 

The couple, apart for 17 years, each have been married, divorced and had children with their spouses, before reuniting.