Ben Affleck Reveals How His Divorce From Jennifer Garner Made Him Better

Silver lining. Ben Affleck revealed how Jennifer Garner’s divorce made him a better actor. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, February 24. the Way Back actor talked about his split from his wife of 10 years and how it changed him for the better.

“For me [The Way Back] was much more about the fact that—whether it’s having lived enough years having seen enough ups and downs having had children and divorce having experienced a lot of different things—I’m at a point now in my life where I have sufficient life experience to bring to a role to make it really interesting for me,” he told THR. “I’m not good enough to just invent it from whole cloth, you know?”

Affleck also talked about how his divorce and relationship with his kids affected the roles he chooses as an actor. “Growing older and having had more intense and meaningful personal experiences has made acting much more interesting for me and in turn made me drawn to the kinds of movies that are about people who are flawed,” he said. “I didn’t have to do research for the alcoholism aspect of the movie—that was covered.”

Affleck and Garner split in 2015 after 10 years of marriage. The couple, who finalized their divorce in 2018, share three kids: daughters Violet, 15, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, 8. In 2020, news broke that Affleck was in a relationship with his Deep Water costar Ana de Armas. The two split in January 2021. A source told Entertainment Tonight at the time that Garner is supportive of Affleck moving on from his past relationship.

Source: Instagram

“Ben is happy, healthy and doing great since his breakup with Ana,” the insider said. “Ben’s friends and Jen Garner are supportive of him moving on. Those close to Ben thought the relationship wasn’t working for either of them anymore.”

In July 2020, Garner gave advice to an Instagram follower about how to leave an abusive marriage. “Your actions show you to be good and kind. It’s that I have finally gotten the courage to tell@my husband to leave after years of emotional abuse and I feel@like I will never find happiness or security . I find a sense of balm from seeing yours buts it’s also mixed with a winsome feeling because I don’t think I’ll@ever be there. He is so vindictive and powerful and I have nothing and no one. Why am I saying this to a stranger? I really don’t know,” she wrote.