Jennifer Garner got candid about her divorce from ex-husband Ben Affleck, and how it inevitably affected their three children.
The 13 Going On 30 star sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for their latest cover story to reflect on her extremely public breakup from the now 48-year-old actor. In it, she said:
“Going through it in public is not what’s hard, going through it is what’s hard, A. And B, my children’s eyes are on me.”
Related: Kanye West Working On New Music Amid Kim Kardashian Divorce!
As a refresher, the former couple went public with their relationship in October 2004 after meeting on the set of their 2003 film Daredevil. The Argo star later proposed to Garner in April 2005, and they got hitched two months later in an intimate four-person beach wedding in the Turks and Caicos. In 2015, the duo announced their uncoupling after a decade of marriage. They officially finalized the divorce three years later.
During the difficult split, Garner had told Vanity Fair in 2016 that she “lost the dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter’s wedding.” Now, they’ve seemingly are on better terms and learned how to co-parent their children, Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, 9. Speaking to THR, the leading lady claimed the dream isn’t actually over.
“When our kids get married, we’ll dance, I know that now. We’ll boogaloo and have a great time. I don’t worry about that anymore.”
Awwww! We love that! Ch-ch-check out Jennifer’s glossy cover (below):
In another portion of the interview, Garner also opened up about the many difficulties of raising a family in the public eye. The Valentine’s Day alum recalled how their three kids have had to deal with the constant swarm of paparazzi attention because of the parents’ fame and divorce.
“We lived down a street that was chock-a-block full of actors, much more successful and famous and decorated than me, including Ben, and they’d all go by one by one, no problem, and then I’d go do a school run and it’d be 15 cars going with me. I never had a day without them, and if I did, if I made it to a park by hiding in the bottom of the pool man’s truck or something, then a nanny would see me there and call a number and they’d swarm.”
Although, Garner said her children have definitely spotted a difference in how people approach the leading lady versus their filmmaker dad over the years.
“People are in awe of him. He’s done incredible things, he’s six-four, he’s … him, and they treat him with a kind of reverence. They say that people treat me like we were just in the middle of a conversation and they want to get back to it. They’ll see me and be like, ‘Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you … ‘”
And even though the cover star has put actions in place to protect her children from being photographed without parental permission, she hasn’t been able to block them from all the headlines surrounding their high-profile mom and dad. (Even more so now that they’re older.) Garner said the fam would always face the breaking news head-on:
“When they were smaller, and there were things out there that were shocking, my request to them was always, ‘Let Dad and I talk you through whatever it is,’ I’d tell them, ‘If you see an image on the front of a magazine, I’ll look at it with you, and we’ll process all the scary feelings that come up together.’”
The Texas native even admitted how her little ones grew up hating cameras because of their shutterbug experience, saying how she’ll “have to ask them when they’re older” to see how much it had impacted their lives. We can only imagine how difficult it had been — you know, given the fact that there was a ton of buzz around their separation for years!
Drop us your thoughts on this honest conversation from Jennifer in the comments (below)!
[Image via Adriana M. Barraza/WENN & Jennifer Garner/Instagram]
Related Posts
