Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck: what they’ve said about each other since their divorce 7 years agol

In 2018 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner officially filed for divorce after 15 years and three children.

But in the almost seven years since, the pair have remained publicly and privately close, co-parenting in a healthy way, to the point that recent reports have suggested that Ben wants to rekindle his romance with Jennifer.

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Video of the pair paintballing together went viral, with one moment showing Ben hugging Jennifer in a manner that hinted at their close relationship.

“I am madly in love. I have the best family, I could not be luckier. I really have come right to the place where I was supposed to be. You’ve got to knock wood,” Ben said of their marriage in 2010.

“I’ve gone around and I’ve taken some rights and lefts and found myself at a place that is really wonderful, and that I’m really grateful for.”

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What has Ben Affleck said about Jennifer since their divorce?

In 2015 they announced their split but continued to live together and vacation with their children, Violet, Finn, and Samuel.

“She’s just a fabulous person,” Ben said a year later. “She’s a great mother. She’s a real talent … She’s somebody that I admire and respect and remain excellent friends with.”

They had continued with marriage counselling, and Jennifer said a year later that she would “go back and remake that decision” to marry Ben any time.

Jen says Ben is the ‘love of her life’

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“I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can’t have these three babies and so much of what we had. He’s the love of my life,” she told Vanity Fair.

In 2017 Ben entered rehab with the help of Jennifer, and thanked her for helping to make a “positive recovery”.

“I have completed treatment for alcohol addiction; something I’ve dealt with in the past and will continue to confront,” he wrote on Facebook. 

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“I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be. I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be a source of strength for anyone out there who needs help but is afraid to take the first step.

“I’m lucky to have the love of my family and friends, including my co-parent, Jen, who has supported me and cared for our kids as I’ve done the work I set out to do. This was the first of many steps being taken towards a positive recovery.”

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Jen was with Ben every step of the way, and even dropped Ben off at the center and told their children what was happening.

Ben said he ‘regretted’ the divorce

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“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” Ben told the New York Times in 2018, after they had officially filed.

“I drank relatively normally for a long time,” he added. “What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”

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Days after the Times interview, he appeared on GMA and admitted he never wanted to be a divorced man.

“I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children,” he said. “It upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was and that was so painful and so disappointing. In myself.”

Ben criticized for comments about Jennifer and drinking

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In 2021 Ben said that he would “still be drinking” if he was still married to Jennifer.

“It’s part of why I started drinking … because I was trapped,” he told Howard Stern.

His remarks led to criticism that he was blaming Jennifer for his drinking, and in 2023 he clarified his words, sharing: “I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”

Bennifer reunites

In 2022 Ben married Jennifer Lopez, and his public remarks about his ex-wife stopped, although in 2023 Jen honored the father of her children with a Father’s Day post on Instagram.

“Shout out to BGA — no one loves their kids like you love ours, happy Father’s Day, Ben! X,” she wrote.