Secret Engagement
Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus take the next step in their romance
Before either of their divorces are finalized, Lindsay Shookus privately agrees to marry Ben Affleck.
Ben Affleck was looking for a new home. Tired of the rental he’s been living in since Jennifer Garner filed for divorce in April, he toured houses in LA at the end of October. Among the properties he saw: an $18.5 million, eight-bedroom Santa Monica mansion and a fivebedroom $11.9 million Pacific Palisades estate. It’s a huge decision, but by his side all the way was his girlfriend, Lindsay Shookus.
She’ll be spending a lot of time at his new home. Just four months after going public with their relationship, Ben, 45, and the Saturday Night Live producer, 37, are secretly engaged and already planning a wedding, sources exclusively tell Life & Style. “Ben and Lindsay are completely in love and secretly got engaged last month,” reveals an insider. “Only their very closest friends know.”
WHAT COMES NEXT
Lindsay won’t be flashing a rock anytime soon. “They’re currently shopping for rings, but they agreed she won’t wear one immediately so they can keep their engagement private,” says the insider. “They want to show some respect for their families since it’s all happened so fast.” And there’s one major obstacle to rushing down the aisle: Neither Ben nor Lindsay is actually divorced yet! Jen, 45, filed court papers seven months ago, after two years of struggling to work things out for the sake of their children, Violet, 11, Seraphina, 8, and S Samuel, 5. And Lindsay and her estranged husband, TV producer Kevin Miller, still live in the same NYC apart-
ment building, where they co-parent their daughter, 4. Their divorce hasn’t progressed since the initial September 2015 filing, according to court records. But now, insiders say, both Ben and Lindsay are pushing to finalize the divorces so they can get hitched. “They both hope to have their divorces finalized in the next few months,” says a source.
“I DO” DETAILS
Don’t expect a huge Hollywood wedding. The ceremony will be “private, at a home and not at a church, with only close friends and family,” says the insider. It likely will be on the East Coast, adds the source, “since that’s where she’s based. It will be much easier for Ben’s mom, too, since she lives in Boston. Ben and Lindsay both love the Hamptons [N.Y.] and have discussed Montauk as an ideal location for a wedding.”
But no matter how tasteful and intimate the nuptials are, they’ll sting for Jen, who tried to save the marriage and stood by Ben when he went to rehab earlier this year. (Ben is currently in an outpatient program, though people close to him want him to go inpatient.) “This whole ordeal has been mortifying for Jen,” says the insider. Still, “She’ll put on a brave front for her kids. She’ll act like it’s no big deal, but will be very deeply hurt.”
But she won’t be surprised by news of the rushed engagement. Jen realizes, the source says, that “this is what Ben does. Instead of dealing with his issues, Ben just creates more chaos.”