Jennifer Garner opened up about what it’s like to coparent with Ben Affleck.
Garner, 53, got candid about her dynamic with Affleck, also 53, during an episode of Bustle’s “One Nightstand” YouTube series, shared on Tuesday, February 24.
While discussing Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud — one of five books that “shaped” the actress — Garner and host Charlotte Owen dove into the relationship of siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who adopted Anne Shirley by mistake. Similar to the siblings, Owen asked Garner how she found the balance of raising her kids with appreciation and conscientious upbringing.
“I think that I do a bit of both,” she said, referring to kids Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13. “And I think my kids’ dad does too. Especially when your kids grow up in two separate households, I become mom and dad and he becomes dad and mom,” Garner explained.
Jennifer Garner Makes Rare Comment About ‘Hard’ Ben Affleck Divorce
She continued, “You kind of can’t help it, right? Because you don’t have the benefit of both sides of the yin and yang being in the same house.”
The 13 Going on 30 star went on to say that she had to “have a bit of both” upbringing qualities and appreciation “in the way” she and Affleck parent. “There’s a little bit of loss in that, but there’s also something gained in that,” she noted.
“You also just learn. It’s made me let go and not focus so much on bringing up,” she added.
Last month, Garner opened up about how “hard” it was to split with Affleck while speaking to Marie Claire UK. “You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there,” she recalled. “The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard.”
Garner and Affleck met in 2001 and sparked romance rumors after he called off his engagement with Jennifer Lopez. The couple tied the knot in 2005, six months before welcoming Violet.
Through the years, the former couple opened up about their relationship. In 2007, Garner gushed about the director at the Golden Globes. “Ben is not only my husband, he has helped me in every way,” she told The Sun. “He is the base of my life. He is an incredibly loving and generous man.”
She again praised her then-husband in 2011, telling InStyle, “I don’t know how or why it works as well as it does. Honestly, I would do anything for that man, because I know it’s not taken for granted.”
Two years later, Affleck told reporters at the 2013 Oscars that their marriage takes as much work as his film projects. “All marriages, all relationships to a certain extent, require your work,” he said. “Nobody’s perfect. I would be lying to you if I said that either she or I were.” One month later, he further opened up about the subject, telling Access Hollywood, “She’s more perfect than I am, I can tell you that.”
In June 2015, they announced their split after 10 years of marriage and finalized their divorce in 2018.
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Garner later got candid about learning how to coparent in the public eye. “Something Ben and I used to say to each other all the time is, ‘We have to adapt.’ We were surrounded by paparazzi,” she wrote in a 2019 article for WSJ Magazine. “There were so many things you wouldn’t expect. We’d be left alone at Disneyland and then we would be at a park in Santa Monica. But if you love something, you’ll do whatever you need to do.”
Affleck reflected on his split from Garner in 2020, telling The New York Times, “The biggest regret of my life is this divorce.” He continued, “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive by-product of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing. I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”
Affleck later rekindled his love with Lopez, 56. They tied the knot in 2022 and divorced in 2025.
