Since Ben Affleck’s high-profile rekindling and divorce with Jennifer Lopez, the actor’s personal life has been a constant hot subject in the tabloids, which then also puts his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, in the spotlight, too. Since Affleck and Garner share three kids, they often spend time together (including sharing this past Thanksgiving), but Garner just made some rare comments about what her relationship is like with her ex-husband.
The 53-year-old exes have been navigating raising kids without being in a marriage since 2015, and it sounds like they’ve really got the hang of it. In an interview with Marie Claire, first Garner reacted to having “the whole internet” root for her happiness by saying this:
So much about my life surprises me. That I’m still working, that I’m still alive, that my kids are healthy, that my work relationships – which are more like familial friendships – are still the same as they were 25 or 30 years ago, but richer and deeper and stronger. It’s all a gift. I just feel so grateful to my job for giving me these people.
While there are a lot of celebrities the public is happy to tear down, that’s not the case for Garner, and she seems to be thriving nowadays. The Alias actor said her current high priorities are being there for her kids, her advocacy work for Save The Children US, being the co-founder of Once Upon A Farm, and, of course, her acting career.
Now, as for her relationship with Affleck, here’s what Garner said:
And then, yeah, that 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. 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’ [that] time is the opportunity. Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends.
There are tons of parents out there who have to deal with going through a divorce while also sharing kids, and it’s not an easy situation to navigate. When it comes to Garner and Affleck, she calls the father of her kids a friend whom she feels like she can have a partnership full of “peace and equanimity.” Plus, she’s in a relationship with businessman John Miller, who has reportedly “embraced Jen’s family life.”
During the interview, Garner also got honest about it being “hard” to break up her family and “lose a true partnership and friendship.” She also spoke about it being rather “tricky” for there to be public interest in her kids and her relationships as they continue to grow older. Garner said she refuses to engage in tabloid coverage because it “doesn’t serve” her.
This month marks a year since Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez finalized their divorce. The pair of actors reunited in 2021 before getting married in Vegas in 2022 and having a second wedding with family and friends in Georgia a couple of months later. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out between them, and Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck in the summer of 2024.
As far as Affleck and Garner’s acting careers go, Affleck has a new movie with Matt Damon called The Rip coming out on the 2026 Netflix schedule next week on January 16! Garner leads The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2, which premieres on Apple TV+ on April 14.