Ben Affleck said he felt “trapped” in his marriage to Jennifer Garner and would “probably” still be “drinking” if he was still married to the superstar actress.
“We probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats,” the 49-year-old actor shared during his appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show.” The comments were noted by Page Six in a piece published Tuesday. (RELATED: REPORT: Alex Rodriguez Is ‘Shocked’ That Jennifer Lopez Has ‘Moved On’ With Ben Affleck)
“I probably still would’ve been drinking,” he added. “Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped. I was like, ‘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.” (RELATED: Ben Affleck Opens Up About How His Alcoholism Almost Ruined His Family)
Ben Affleck: I would’ve ‘still’ been drinking if I stayed married to Jennifer Garner https://t.co/pEt5qcPa7g pic.twitter.com/1V1mTMaCFg
— New York Post (@nypost) December 14, 2021
“Ultimately, we tried, we tried, we tried because we had kids, but both of us felt like we didn’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage,” Affleck continued. “Everything you read [in the news about the divorce] was bulls–t. The truth was we took our time, we made our decision … We grew apart.”
The “Gone Girl” star said Garner is someone he loves and respects, but that they had “a marriage that didn’t work” and shouldn’t be “married any longer.”
At one point, the “Justice League” star talked about his path to sobriety and said the cure to “addiction is suffering” and that it’s after a person suffers enough “that something inside you” says it’s done.
“I’m lucky because I hit that point before I lost the things that were most important,” Affleck said. “Not my career or money — it was my relationship with my kids, and when I felt as if it impacted them, I recognized it.”
“It was the worst day of my life,” added. “I made amends … But since that day, I swear to Christ, I have not ever wanted to drink once.”
Ben has recently been linked romantically with his former fiancee, actress Jennifer Lopez. Affleck was married to Garner from 2005-2018. He and Lopez were engaged in the early 2000s before reports surfaced that they were back together in April 2021.