Hollywood star Jennifer Garner has opened up about her separation from ex-husband Ben Affleck, sharing that the most challenging aspect was the dissolution of their family and partnership.
In an interview with Marie Claire UK, Garner, 53, discussed her life now and the upcoming second season of her drama, The Last Thing He Told Me. Reflecting on her breakup with Affleck in 2015, she stated, “You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there. But what was out there… was not what was hard. The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard.”
Following her highly publicized split from Affleck, with whom she shares three children—Violet Anne, Seraphina Rose, and Samuel—Garner emphasized the importance of community. She made “a big, concerted effort to see my people as much as I can, because that’s what matters.”
Garner noted, “That’s where your resilience is: it’s in your relationships and in the people who carry you through.”
The former couple ended their marriage in 2015 after a decade together, officially finalizing their divorce three years later.
Garner also mentioned her current priorities, which include advocacy work with Save the Children US and Once Upon a Farm, alongside her kids. “They’re just so cool!” she remarked about Violet Anne, 20, Seraphina Rose, 17, and Samuel, 13.
Speaking about parenting, she said, “It’s more about parenting with a button on my mouth…. You have to let them grow up and make their choices. You don’t get to control it.”
Garner, who is currently dating businessman John Miller, admitted that co-parenting with Affleck while their lives remain in the public eye has been “the hardest thing. Not hard in the grand scheme of what is hard in the world, but tricky for me and tricky for my family.”