BEN: MY BIGGEST REGRET IS LOSING JEN
After making many a mistake, including during his marriage to Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck says he’s trying to “move forward”
Ben Affleck has made some bad choices in life. From the reported womanizing that ended his engagement to Jennifer Lopez to his questionable movie decisions (Gigli, Live by Night, etc.) to the drinking and substance abuse issues that have landed him in rehab three times — he was sober for a year when he slipped up again, briefly, last fall — Ben has often proven to be his own worst enemy. But while he readily admits it, the actor chooses instead to focus on the positive. “It’s not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures,” he explains. “I have certainly made mistakes…. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”
Yet there’s one mistake he may never be able to get over: losing his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. In a revealing New York Times interview, Ben recently took the blame for his divorce from Jen, which was finalized in 2018 after a three-year separation — and said that he still feels guilt over everything he put her through. “What happened was that I started drinking more
and more when my marriage was falling apart,” he shares in the piece. “My drinking, of course, created more marital problems. The biggest regret of my life is this divorce.”
SHE’S SAVED HIM
While Ben, 47, doesn’t usually volunteer much about his personal life, he laid his soul bare about Jen, 47, in the interview. An insider says it was because he was finally ready. “Ben’s had time to reflect on life since the split and regrets the way he treated Jen,” the insider notes. “When he hit rock bottom, she was always there for him. She was his tower of strength — even after they divorced.”
Indeed, it was Jen who staged an intervention in August 2018, carting Ben off to rehab following a dangerous bender. Bound to him by their
kids, Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11, and Samuel, 7 — but also by the many ups and downs they’ve shared over the years — she’s always had Ben’s back. And he appreciates that now more than ever. “If he could turn back time and change things, he would,” the insider says. “Ben has admitted to Jennifer himself that he misses her.”
Until she read the interview, though, Jen didn’t realize how much. “She was both surprised and touched by his honesty,” reveals the insider. But while she’ll always care deeply for Ben, Jen has no intention of giving their love another chance. “It’s the last thing on her mind,” the insider says of the actress, who has been dating businessman John Miller for over a year. “Still, she’s very proud of Ben and the progress that he’s made.”