Ben Affleck, who has sought help for alcoholism multiple times throughout his acting career, has claimed he’d still be struggling to get sober had he remained in a marriage “that didn’t work” with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.
“I’d probably still be drinking,” he said in a much-criticised interview on The Howard Stern Show shared by Access. “Part of why I started drinking alcohol was because I was trapped.”
“I was like ’I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?” he added, per People. “What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
Ben, who went to rehab in 2001, 2017 and 2018 – driven to a facility by his ex-wife in the latter instance years after their separation and following an intervention staged by her – noted that the marriage had hit a dead end for both parties.
“The truth was we took our time, we made the decision ... we grew apart,” he said. “We had a marriage that didn’t work. This happens.
“She’s somebody I love and respect but to whom I shouldn’t be married to any longer... Ultimately we we tried, we tried, we tried, because we had kids.”
Jennifer Garner’s reps didn’t immediately reply to a HuffPost request for comment. But some observers on the internet found The Tender Bar actor’s remarks to be insensitive and egregiously casting blame on his ex-wife and the mother of his children.
New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan wrote that Ben had given “the cruelest post-divorce interview since Brad Pitt blamed ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, in Parade magazine, for his deep unhappiness and subsequent affair with Angelina Jolie”.
Piers Morgan also penned a column slamming Ben’s remarks in the Daily Mail, branding the actor’s remarks “astonishingly insensitive”.
Check out some of Ben Affleck’s comments in the video below, around the 1:30 mark:
Help and support:
- If you need help with a drinking problem, call the Alcoholics Anonymous national helpline for free on 0800 9177 650 or email help@aamail.org.
- For advice on how to reduce drinking, visit Drinkaware’s website or Alcohol Change UK.
- Find alcohol addiction services near you using this NHS tool.