Eight years after their split, actress Jennifer Garner has spoken candidly about the realities of co-parenting her three children with her former husband Ben Affleck.
Jennifer Garner has spoken candidly about the realities of co-parenting her three children with her former husband.
Describing both the “loss” and the lessons that come with raising children across two households, Jennifer, 53, made the remarks during an appearance on Bustle’s One Nightstand YouTube series, where she discussed bringing up Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 13, following her split from Ben Affleck, 53, to whom the actress was married from 2005 until 2018.
Speaking to host Charlotte Owen, Jennifer said when the children are with her, she has to “become mom and dad”, and there is a “loss” that comes with co-parenting.
Addressing how she finds the balance in raising her children with a “conscientious upbringing” and “appreciation”, Jennifer added: “And I think my kids’ dad does too. Especially when your kids grow up in two separate households, I become mom and dad and he becomes dad and mom.”
Jennifer also said: “You kind of can’t help it, right? Because you don’t have the benefit of both sides of the yin and yang being in the same house.
“There’s a little bit of loss in that, but there’s also something gained in that. “You also just learn. It’s made me let go and not focus so much on bringing up.”
Last month, in an interview with Marie Claire UK, Jennifer described the breakdown of her marriage as “hard”.
She said: “You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there.
“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.”
Jennifer added putting her children first never felt like a sacrifice, despite her career in Hollywood.
She said: “It never felt like a sacrifice. It was really hard to go to work and it definitely shaped the jobs I chose, in a big way.”
And speaking about navigating public scrutiny, Jennifer went on: “Not hard in the grand scheme of what is hard in the world, but tricky for me and tricky for my family.”
She also addressed the period when Ben reunited with Jennifer Lopez, 56, in 2021.
Ben later married Jennifer Lopez in 2022, and she filed for divorce two years later.
In an interview with Flaunt magazine, Jennifer said: “Time has passed, and other women are going through really hard seasons in their lives, and I think it’s helpful to know that time will go on and you will get to the other side.
“That’s really all it’s about. I was in the middle of something for a really long time, and it didn’t make sense.
“There was no way to talk about it, and it’s certainly not my place to talk about him or his experience or anything he’s gone through, or my children or their experience.
“But I can say that I feel lighter and happier and more myself [than I have] in a really long time, and I think that’s important to know because I really felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, has this family shake up — has it changed me forever?’
“When you’re many years into something, you think, ‘I don’t know how it’s gonna pass.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jennifer clarified a ring she was wearing was not an engagement ring, despite her seven-year relationship with businessman John Miller.
Jennifer Garner opens up about the realities of co-parenting her three children with her former husband Ben Affleck
