Tragic relapse
Jen takes broken Ben back to rehab
It’s been three years since they separated, but Jennifer Garner was the first to swoop in when her estranged husband Ben Affleck appeared to fall off the wagon amid a string of public dates with a 22-yearold Playboy P model.
The T frightened Peppermint actress, actre a 46, and a friend turned turn t up at her ex’s Pacific Palisades Palis P bachelor pad last week wee w to stage a lengthy intervention inter i after the Justice League Leag L actor was seen having beer and liquor delivered to his home following a boozy dinner with young beauty Shauna Sexton.
Thankfully, 46-year-old Ben – a self-confessed alcoholic who sought treatment in both 2001 and 2017 – didn’t put up a fight and even begged for help, with Jennifer then driving the teary star to a live-in rehabilitation facility, where he’ll reportedly spend “an extended period of time”.
The actor is said to have hit the bottle after being dumped by his girlfriend of one year, Lindsay Shookus, who allegedly caught Ben chatting to Shauna on a dating app. A friend of the TV producer claims, “Lindsay found a string of explicit messages and went ballistic. Ben admitted it had become an ‘emotional affair’ and that he’d secretly met up with Shauna a couple of times, but he insisted nothing physical had happened. Lindsay was in pieces and immediately told Ben she was done.”
Busted!
The actor was later seen looking worse for wear on a date with the Virginia-born veterinarian – Playboy magazine’s Miss May 2018, who has publicly boasted about drinking “whiskey all day” – at posh Malibu restaurant Nobu, causing a humiliated Lindsay, 38, to delete her Instagram account.
But it was Jennifer who was most concerned, plastering on a forced, strained smile as she accepted her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – surrounded by her and Ben’s adoring children, Violet, 12, Seraphina, nine, and Samuel, six – the same afternoon Ben was having a box of booze delivered to his $30 million home, where he’d spent many hours with Shauna.
At that time, a source close to the couple told Woman’s Day, “Jen is certain Ben is set to crash and burn. As soon as she found out that he had been dumped by Lindsay and taken up with a woman half his age, it sent a shiver down her spine.
“She always had nightmares he’d go back to his wild partying ways and now she fears it may really be happening. Poor Jen is having terrible flashbacks to the days she was married to Ben and he would disappear for days, going on benders and getting up to who knows what.”
Back then, at least, he always came home to Jennifer, who “did everything to keep him on the straight and narrow”, our source says. And though the actress certainly didn’t like Lindsay, who first hooked up with Ben while he and Jennifer were still together, she did manage to keep him on a tight leash. Since their split, the Love, Simon star had been “going through hell” over what might happen to her ex.
“The bottom line is, Jen still loves Ben. It’s why they’re not divorced three years after they broke up. Not because she wants to get back with him, but rather Jen feels that while he is still officially her husband, she can make sure he is clean and sober, for his sake and the kids. She knows it would break their hearts to see their dad in a downward spiral.”
A source close to the actress adds, “Of course she’s not pleased he’s dating a 22-year-old Playboy model, but she’s also not surprised. Jen has come to expect this from Ben. She just wants to protect the kids.”
Even before the actor fell off the wagon, Jennifer – who has been romantically linked to Fear the Walking Dead star Arturo del Puerto – was bribing her ex by refusing to sign off on their divorce or allow him overnight visits with their kids unless he attended his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings more regularly.
But although Ben was keen to officially end their 13-year marriage, it wasn’t motivation enough, with the Los Angeles Superior Court recently warning the couple that their divorce case could be dismissed as they’ve taken so long to settle their differences.
“The two have been arguing over custody issues and Ben feels Jen needs to cut him some slack, but she isn’t budging,” a family insider told us last week. “It doesn’t matter to her if the divorce is finalised or not – it’s Ben who wants to move on. This might be what finally makes Ben make a commitment to his sobriety.”