Jennifer Garner broke her silence on her ex-husband Ben Affleck’s brief reunion with his old flame Jennifer Lopez.
In a new interview with Flaunt, Garner said she felt “in the middle of something” during the pair’s second, very public relationship.
Garner married Affleck in 2005 and officially divorced in 2017. They share three children: Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 13. Prior to his marriage to Garner, Affleck was engaged to Lopez for two years in 2002—a relationship the pair rekindled when they reunited and married in 2022. The reunion put the spotlight back on Garner, as Lopez became an active stepmom to her children.
Garner remained mum on how it was all going until the interview was released on Tuesday. “I was in the middle of something for a really long time, and it didn’t make sense,” she told the magazine. “There was no way to talk about it, and it’s certainly not my place to talk about him or his experience or anything he’s gone through, or my children or their experience.”
“But I can say that I feel lighter and happier and more myself [than I have] in a really long time,” she continued. “I think that’s important to know because I really felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, has this family shake-up—has it changed me forever?’ When you’re many years into something, you think, ‘I don’t know how it’s gonna pass.’”
Garner had similar reflections about her split from Affleck and the anxiety she faced about the future of their family in January.
She told Marie Claire UK, “The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard” about her divorce. Also, “losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard.” Tabloid coverage made it all worse, she explained. “You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there.”
Upon further reflection, she had a revelation, she said at the time, “But what was out there was not what was hard. The fact of it is what was hard.”
Affleck attributed the breakdown of his marriage to Garner to his own alcohol abuse in 2018, calling the end of the relationship “the biggest regret of my life.”
Garner has since moved on with long-time boyfriend, businessman John Miller, with whom she has reportedly been dating on and off since 2018.
Lopez and Affleck separated less than two years after tying the knot in 2022. Lopez filed for divorce in August 2024, and it was finalized the following January. Affleck explained the breakup to GQ last year. “There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue,” he said. “The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’ Well, there is no, ‘This is what happened.’”
“It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do,” he added.
