Ben Affleck on being married to Jennifer Garner: “Would’ve still been drinking if I’d stayed married”

After being married for more than a decade, the duo got divorced in 2018. Ben is currently dating Jennifer Lopez.

Ben Affleck recently appeared on The Howard Stern Show and the actor talked about possibly ‘everything’. The two hour interview revealed Affleck’s professional life along with personal life issues.

Affleck opened up about his married life with Jennifer Garner and slammed the world tabloids for making up “horrible” stories.

The host of the show, Stern even brought up the topic about the rekindled romance between Jennifer Lopez and the oscar winning actor and asked, “Was there a hesitation on your part, because now you’re a dad … the two of you together creates a f****** dynamic like I’ve never seen before, Was there hesitation on your part to say I can’t go through this again?”

To which Ben admitted, “”It crossed my mind for sure. My responsibility to my children is my highest responsibility I have. I’m not doing anything that’s painful or destructive to them if I can help it. That being said, I know that my life affects them.”

Ben later addressed how he tackles the wrong attention and how it is hard for his kids. Affleck recalled a moment, ” My kid looks at me and goes, ‘Hashtag, welcome to my life,’ I’ve already inflicted that on them. You know, me and their mom are celebrities and that’s hard, let’s not bulls*** each other … During the divorce, they printed f****** horrible lies. Horrible mean lies.”

Stern asked, “Like what? What were the lies?”

The director-actor replied, “I don’t even want to give voice to it, anything you read about that was bulls***.”

Ben also opened up about his married life with Garner and how they fell apart. The Tender Bar actor explained, “The truth was, we took our time, we made the decision … We grew apart. We had a marriage that didn’t work, this happens, with somebody that I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer. Ultimately, we tried. We tried, we tried because we had kids. Both of us felt like we don’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage.”

Affleck also stated that if they stayed married they “would have wound up at each other’s throats.”

The actor also talked about his drinking problem and why he started it in the first place, “I’d probably still be drinking. It’s part of why I started drinking … because I was trapped,I was like ‘I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do.’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”

Later the host asked Affleck if he was ever suicidal, to which Ben replied, “nope, never once. I’m very lucky.”

Affleck shares a great bond with his kids and he also revealed that being their father is the most important thing in his life.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were engaged for a brief period before the former got married to his ex-wife. They called off their engagement in 2003. After divorce with Garner, Bennifer is spotted hand-in-hand on multiple occasions, making it clear they are all ready to give their romance a chance.