Ben Affleck says backlash to recent Jennifer Garner comments ‘hurt my feelings’

‘It just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, awful guy,’ actor said

Ben Affleck has hit back at claims he partly blamed his marriage to Jennifer Garner for turning to drink.

On Tuesday (14 December), Affleck told Howard Stern that he split from Garner because they “had a marriage that didn’t work”.

He added: “This happens. It was somebody I love and respect but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.”

Affleck said that, after attempting to salvage things because of their three children, he thought: “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.”

Reflecting on what might have happened had the pair stayed married to one another, Affleck told Stern: “I’d probably still be drinking. Part of why I started drinking alcohol was because I felt trapped.”

These comments caused a backlash, with many feeling that the Tender Bar star was blaming Garner for making him turn to drink. However, Affleck told Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday (15 December) that he believes the media twisted his words to make it seem that way, and that it “hurt my feelings”.

“We talked a lot about my family, you know, alcoholism, struggling with real things, how you have to be accountable and loving, how I work with my ex-wife, how I’m so proud of the way we work together for our kids, the best that we can for them,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“I was thrilled,’ he said of the interview. “I thought, ‘Wow, I should do more honest, exploratory, self-evaluating things.’ Then I start seeing all this stuff come up on Twitter. And I was like, ‘What is this?’”

He said that one website had “literally taken the conversation that I had had for two hours and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I had said”.

Affleck continued: “It said that I had blamed my ex-wife for my alcoholism, that I was trapped in this marriage, just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy.”

Ben Affleck agreed that the media took his recent comments ‘out of context’ (Getty Images)

The actor pointed out that, in the interview, he had “said how much we respected each other, cared about each other, cared about our kids, put them first”.

Affleck and Garner first announced their relationship in 2004 and got married the year after. The Hollywood A-listers got divorced in 2018, the same year Affleck went to rehab for alcoholism.

The Justice League actor has previously called his divorce from Garner “the biggest regret of his life”.

Affleck is currently dating his ex-fiancée Jennifer Lopez, after the pair confirmed their high-profile romance in June this year.