JEN’S EMERGENCY DASH TO SAVE BEN
The mother of his children stages an intervention to save his life
Jennifer Garner has stepped in at the eleventh hour to save her alcoholic estranged husband Ben Affleck from himself, staging a dramatic intervention to force him back into rehab.
In a heartwrenching image beamed around the world, Batman hunk Ben is pictured cowering in the back seat of a car driven by the mother of his three children, tears streaming down his red-raw face as she races him to get professional help for his addiction.
THREE-DAY BENDER
Sources tell Woman’s Day Ben, 46, had been “drinking for at least three days” before Jen’s intervention on the evening of Wednesday August 22.
The shocking photos come after a stunning series of events in the actor’s extremely public relapse of his addiction issues.
Despite checking into rehab after the couple’s 2016 split, Ben was widely reported to be drinking again as he hooked up with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus.
Even with his new relationship status – he was rumoured to be living with Lindsay in LA and New York – Ben and Jennifer continued to co-parent their kids Violet, 12, Seraphina, nine, and Samuel, six.
Rumours swirled Jen and Ben weren’t ready to give up on their marriage, when just three weeks ago, the LA Courts ruled that if the pair didn’t complete their divorce filing, the motion would be tossed out – though some insiders say they were dragging their feet over money.
But Ben’s tumble back into drinking became painfully evident when he was spotted last weekend accepting a large delivery of alcohol to his house.
In the midst of his three-day bender, Ben forgot to shut the gates of his newly purchased $19 million mansion in LA’S luxe Pacific Palisades, leaving the paparazzi camped outside to rescue his several dogs.
Around the same time, reports emerged he’d been seen on “back-to-back dates” with Playboy playmate, 22-year-old Ventura-based vet tech Shauna Sexton. Lindsay, meanwhile, was seen moving out of his house, even though she’d only moved in a month previously.
PICKING UP THE PIECES
Days later, it was left to “visibly shaken” Jen to pick up the pieces. She arrived at Ben’s around 6pm Wednesday evening and, with her bodyguard, scraped Ben up off the floor in front of a watching press pack, telling them “now isn’t a good time”.
A source told E! Ben had been drinking since Monday and accepted the intervention. “He asked her to take him and
‘His addiction is completely out of control. Jen fears the worst’
wanted to go with her,” says the insider. In a testament to Jen’s strength, sources tell Woman’s Day she wasn’t mad at her estranged husband, and only desperately worried for him.
“Ben just can’t keep going on like this. His addiction is completely out of control. Jen fears the worst for him,” says a source. “Regardless of how he’s been breaking her heart almost on the daily, she is first and foremost a mother and she can’t bear to see this happening to the father of her babies. The kids are all old enough to understand their dad is sick now and she wants to get him better for them. “Plus, they were married for 10 years – even though he destroyed their marriage, a love like that doesn’t just go away.”