Jennifer Garner opened up about “losing the partnership and friendship” she had with ex-husband Ben Affleck.
“The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard,” the actress told Marie Claire UK in a new interview to promote the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me. “Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard.”
Garner and Affleck married in 2005 and remained together for ten years until their 2015 separation. They share three children—Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 13.
“You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there,” she said of the tabloid coverage of the breakup at the time. “But what was out there was not what was hard. The fact of it is what was hard.”
Affleck attributed their marriage’s breakdown to his overuse of alcohol, telling The New York Times in 2018, two years after the divorce was finalized, that it was “the biggest regret of my life.”
“I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart,” he also told the publication. “This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.” The couple was separated for three years before it became official.
In April, Affleck praised Garner as “a really good co-parent and partner,” telling GQ that Garner is “wonderful and great and we work together well.” The pair reportedly has an easygoing relationship, with Page Six reporting they spent Thanksgiving together at Garner’s house.
Garner told Marie Claire that the relationship evolved with time. “I’m able to co-parent at this point in time with peace and equanimity and a partnership that I didn’t know I would ever get back to,” she said.
The actress has been reportedly dating businessman John Miller since 2018. Affleck briefly remarried his ex, Jennifer Lopez, before divorcing in early 2025.
“I think it’s important for women to know, when they think, ‘Oh, I’ll never see that, I’ll never have that feeling, I’ll never be friends with this person again,’ time is the opportunity,” Garner said. “Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on, and to find a new way to be friends.”
