Ben Can't Drop HIS BAD HABITS
Rehab veteran Ben Affleck concerns pals by returning to some of his partying ways
Aday like this didn’t seem possible last year. On Jan. 21, five months after an exasperated Jennifer Garner drove estranged husband Ben Affleck to rehab herself following a disastrous drinking binge, the pair happily chatted outside the family’s LA church. Ben appeared clear- eyed and healthier than he’d looked in a while. “For his kids’ sake and for their mom and for himself,” Casey Affleck has said of his older brother’s seeking treatment in 2018, “he’s trying to do the work and get it together.”
But Ben still may not have it all together. While he hasn’t been spotted drinking since completing rehab last fall, Life & Style has exclusively learned that the Batman v. Super-
man star can’t seem to drop his other bad habits. Namely, gambling and women. “Ben has been attending underground gambling parties with girls dressed in lingerie,” a source reveals of the actor, 46. “He’s gone to these parties for years and still goes, even after rehab.”
SECRET LATE NIGHTS
It’s not the best situation for the recovering star to be in. Though Ben’s denied having a gambling addiction, he’s known to spend huge amounts at casinos — and was barred for life from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. “When he wins, he plays more, and when he loses, he loses big,” says the source. “He gambles a lot of money!”
His obsession with sitting at gaming tables was one of the rumored causes of his divorce from Jen, 46, which was finalized in October. “I think he still hides the gambling from Jen,” the source says, explaining that, besides putting his savings at risk, Ben’s habit limits qual- ity time he could be spending with his kids. “Going to private parties at private houses, like he is now, means he has to worry less about Jen finding out.”
While an insider denies that Ben is gambling at all, Life & Style’s source insists the star is not only attending high-stakes gatherings (which have a wild, Vegaslike atmosphere), he’s been going more and more. “The girls serve drinks and give massages,” details the source, who adds that while “there’s no pressure” for the ladies to hook up with gam- blers, “they usually do.”
Of course, Ben is single, and entitled to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants. But some fear these late, risqué nights filled with boozing card sharks and eager-to-please girls could lead the star back down a dark path. “He’s in a good place with the drinking, but he could spiral from this,” warns the source of Ben, who has struggled with alcoholism since the ’90s and has been to rehab at least three times. “It’s really pretty frightening.”