Showdown With the Other Woman

JEN’S REVE A devastated Jennifer Garner confronts the married woman who’s dating her husband

They looked, says an eyewitness, “incredibly cozy.” Night had fallen when Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus slid into a booth in the back of the dimly lit restaurant and bar. “They started at opposite sides of their booth, but as the night progressed, they moved to the same side,” the eyewitness tells In Touch. As it got later and later, the handsome movie star and the statuesque blond Saturday Night Live producer looked increasingly comfortable with each other as they laughed and whispered in each other’s ears until they were the only patrons left. They finally closed the place down when they left together around 2 a.m.

But this wasn’t the scene from the romantic headline-making dinner Ben and Lindsay shared at Giorgio Baldi on July 6 — the night they went public with their “new” romance. The chemistryladen rendezvous that the eyewitness details exclusively to In Touch actually took place five years ago at the Lobby Lounge inside NYC’S Mandarin Oriental Hotel. A source close to Ben admits to In Touch, “Ben and Lindsay may have hooked up in the past.” Ben was sleeping at the Mandarin Oriental hotel the night of that late-night date, “and it seemed pretty obvious he and Lindsay were hooking up,” says the eyewitness. They were clearly into each other in a way that indicated an emotional connection — not the kind of thing any wife would be happy with. And while the world didn’t learn about their clandestine relationship at the time, one person soon did: his wife, Jennifer Garner. The devastating knowledge led to a shocking showdown between the women years ago. “Jen originally confronted Lindsay in New York back when she and Ben were still trying to work on their marriage [ before their public split in June 2015],” an insider tells In Touch exclusively. Now the actress, 45, and the SNL producer, 36, are once again facing off now that Ben, 44, has stepped out publicly with Lindsay. “Jen was inundated with calls from friends and family warning her that photos of Ben and Lindsay were all over the internet after their July 6 dinner,” says the insider. “She was livid and felt humiliated — and wanted to confront Lindsay.”

Jen got her revenge when she called Lindsay and unloaded on her. “Jen already had her number from when everything happened before, and this time she just laid into her, accusing Lindsay of breaking up her family and now flaunting her romance with Ben,” says the insider. “Of course Jen blames Ben, too, but she thinks it was Lindsay’s idea to come to LA knowing that she’d finally be photographed with Ben and get their relationship out in the open.” Lindsay was hardly rattled. “She knows she and Ben are together officially now and wasn’t fazed by what Jen had to say to her.” A source close

to Lindsay confirms, “Yes, Jen and Lindsay have spoken on the phone since Lindsay’s relationship with Ben began. The conversations have been brief.”

And cold. The first time they spoke, “Jen told Lindsay to back away, but Lindsay dared to tell Jen that she and Ben were in love,” says the insider. “Of course Ben backpedaled and tried to play it off by saying he and Lindsay were never serious, that she was obsessed. He totally tried to convince Jen that he and Lindsay were just close friends. But Jen’s not stupid.”

Ben is clearly now very serious about Lindsay, who’s been spending more and more time with him in recent weeks. She joined him in London in late June and early July where she was spotted visiting him on the Justice League set, dining at romantic restaurant Gymkhana and taking in a July 1 West End production of The Ferryman. The Emmy winner, who’s also served as a producer on 30 Rock, has also been photographed outside Ben’s new bachelor pad in LA’S Brentwood neighborhood as well as by his side during that game-changing dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, where they didn’t hold back on the PDA as they dined on lobster and

pasta during a nearly two-hour meal at a corner table. “I saw Ben touch her hand and put his arm around her. They were very affectionate and looked very happy,” says an observer. Ben, who revealed in March that he’d just gone to rehab for alcohol addiction, ordered a bottle of Marchesi Antinori Solaia wine “and shared it with his blond girlfriend,” adds the observer. “He was definitely drinking.” (“As far as drinking goes,” says the source close to Ben, “yes, he has people pour him a glass of wine, but he will only have a sip or two. He is not drinking large amounts of alcohol. For his new Batman film he is in great shape, and he wants to stay that way.”)

Ben and Lindsay didn’t try to hide their romance at all. He led her into and out of the restaurant, which is popular with celebrities,

When Jen realized Ben was having an affair with Lindsay, she was devastated but not terribly surprised”

—A SOURCE CLOSE TO THE SITUATION

with a hand on her back and didn’t make any effort to walk in separately or hide before they climbed into their chauffeured car. “Ben was very relaxed and at ease,” notes another source, “almost as if he was relieved that this was finally out in the open.”

Lindsay was also married when she and Ben started their relationship. She met her future husband, SNL- turned- Late Night With Seth Meyers producer Kevin Miller (who follows Ben on Twitter!), on her first day of work at SNL in 2002 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They married in 2010. Court records show the pair, who share a 4-year-old daughter, Madeline, began divorce proceedings in September 2015 — two months after Ben and Jen announced that their marriage was over. Though the divorce is yet to be finalized, the exes live in separate apartments in the same NYC building. A family insider put it this way: “I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody [that Lindsay’s with Ben].” Ben isn’t the only A-lister Lindsay has been linked to. She’s also raised eyebrows thanks to her friendship with Jon Hamm. “She and Jon would dirty dance together and be very flirtatious out in the open at SNL afterparties — this went on for years,” says an SNL staffer. “They were both in relationships at the time and people always talked about it.” The source close to Ben insists his romance with Lindsay “only became a real relationship three months ago.” But other sources say it’s been a “real relationship” for years.

Publicly, Jen’s putting on a happy face. But even though she was all smiles as she was photographed leaving a workout on July 8 and then again at church on July 9, privately she’s in agony. “Of course Jen’s completely humiliated. She’s mortified and embarrassed,” says the insider. The last few years have been rough: Two years ago, Ben found himself embroiled in a nanny cheating scandal just weeks after he and Jen announced their split, which followed years of marital strife. “He and Jen have long grappled with serious issues, including his gambling, drinking and, of course, cheating rumors,” an insider told In Touch in 2015.

Now with Lindsay firmly in the picture, Jen and Ben are at the point of no return. “Jen feels like Ben made a fool of her and that Lindsay knew exactly what she was doing,” says the insider. “She’s extremely disappointed in Ben — and says she’ll never forgive him.” ◼