Actor Ben Affleck opened up about his recovery from alcoholism and how it affected his relationships with his ex-wife and his children.
Affleck talked about his children and his divorce from Jennifer Garner during Thursday’s episode of “Good Morning America.”
Affleck claimed he “never thought” he would get divorced from Garner. The two officially split back in 2018 during Affleck’s struggles with alcohol abuse.
“I never thought that I was gonna get divorced,” Affleck said. “I didn’t want to get divorced. I didn’t want to be a divorced person. I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children. And it upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was. And that was so painful and so disappointing in myself.”
The “Justice League” actor also told host Diane Sawyer about how his father’s struggle with alcoholism taught him the importance of the relationship between father and children. (RELATED: Ben Affleck Says Divorcing Jennifer Garner Is The ‘Biggest Regret’ Of His Life)
“For me seeing my dad was just, he was drunk every day and that was just life. And then as that got worse, that was really, really painful,” Affleck said. “And I always said, ‘That’ll never be me. I’m never gonna do that.'”
“I wish he had been sober during those formative years, but what he’s taught me is how important it is for me to be sober now during these formative years for my kids,” he added.
Affleck said he doesn’t have “anymore room for failure of that kind.”
“I really don’t want my children to pay for my sins,” he said.
“[That] is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic,” Affleck admitted. “Do you think, ‘What if my dad gets drunk? What if he does something stupid? What if he ends up on TMZ and it’s on my news feed and other kids see it?'”