Ben Affleck talks Jennifer Lopez divorce, co-parenting with Jennifer Garner
Lopez and Affleck divorced in August.
Ben Affleck is opening up publicly for the first time on his divorce from Jennifer Lopez.
The "Gone Girl" actor recently spoke to GQ for the publication's April cover story, calling the divorce "pretty adult" despite what he described as "sensational" media coverage surrounding their split last year.
He also discussed co-parenting with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children.
Affleck broached the topic of Lopez in discussing why he is the subject of such intense media coverage.
"My life is actually pretty drama-free," said Affleck. "I'm sure in your mind you're thinking, 'Oh, well, you just got divorced. That's not drama-free.'"
Affleck then countered, "But all of this is pretty adult, and for all the sensational stuff that gets written, if somebody sat down and talked to me about it, and I said, 'Well, this is really the experience,' their eyes would glaze over with boredom."
Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck in August 2024 after two years of marriage, according to legal documents obtained by ABC News.
The interviewer referenced Affleck's participation in Jennifer Lopez's 2024 documentary, "The Greatest Love Story Never Told," as showing the differences in their dealings with public life.
"There are a lot of people who I think have handled celebrity more adeptly and more adroitly than I have, Jennifer among them. My temperament is to be a little bit more reserved and private than hers. As happens in relationships, you don't always have the same attitude towards these things," Affleck said, referencing Lopez.
"I love and support this person. I believe in them. They're great. I want people to see that," he continued, adding, "I think the thing that I said in that documentary or the piece that they used was where I said, 'You don't marry a ship captain and then say, 'Well, I don't like going out in the water.' You've got to own what you knew going into any relationship."
Affleck also said the issues in his relationship with Lopez were not evident in the documentary. "It's not like you can watch that documentary and go, 'Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had,'" he said.
In another conversation with GQ days later, Affleck reiterated his "respect" for Lopez.
"I hope I was clear that really this is somebody I have a lot of respect for. And I get wanting to divine or explore the kind of differences in perspective that we have in terms of how a person feels comfortable approaching the line between public and private life," he said, adding that he holds no "negativity or judgment" about those differences.
"Like I said, the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting," he said.
The actor noted that rather than one event or action, the couple's issues sound "more like a couple's therapy session" than anything else.
"'Okay, clearly this person has got these issues. Clearly they have these issues.' And the reason I don't want to share that is just sort of embarrassing. It feels vulnerable," he said.
"Good Morning America" reached out to a representative for Lopez for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Affleck also discussed with GQ his co-parenting relationship with ex-wife Garner amid the complicated backdrop of celebrity gossip.
"I'm really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner, the kids' mom, who's wonderful and great and we work together well," said Affleck.
He said he and his ex-wife used to have a tactic for explaining away false stories their children may see about them.
"We used to have a thing, my ex-wife and I, when they would see something on a supermarket stand, we would say, well, 'You know this isn't always true because if it were, you would have 15 brothers or sisters or whatever the number of stories is where they said that your mom was pregnant.'"
Affleck and Garner, who married in 2005 and divorced in 2018, are parents to Violet Affleck, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13.
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