In a new interview with the New York Times, Ben Affleck reflected candidly on his divorce from Jennifer Garner, to whom he was married for over 10 years and shares three children (Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel). His drinking led to the deterioration of his marriage, he said. Affleck has entered rehab multiple times to get help with alcohol, including most recently in the late summer and early fall of 2018.
“I drank relatively normally for a long time,” he said. “What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”
“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” he continued. “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”
“It’s not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures—the relapses—and beat myself up,” he added, after taking a sharp breath and exhaling, per the Times. “I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”
Garner and Affleck’s divorce was finalized in October 2018. Around that time, Affleck revealed he was in outpatient care after completing 40 days in treatment. Garner staged the final intervention in August that led to him getting help.