Jennifer Garner Opens Up On ‘Hard’ Divorce With Ben Affleck: ‘Losing A True Partnership...’

Jennifer Garner is opening up like never before about one of the most difficult chapters of her life — her divorce from Ben Affleck. In a candid new interview with Marie Claire UK, the actress reflected on the emotional toll of their separation, years after the highly publicised split.

Speaking about her life today and the upcoming second season of her Apple TV+ series The Last Thing He Told Me, the 53-year-old revisited the period surrounding her breakup with Affleck in 2015. Garner admitted that while public scrutiny was intense, it wasn’t the external noise that hurt the most.

“You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there. But what was out there,” Garner said, gesturing into the distance,

“was not what was hard. 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.”

‘Breaking Up a Family Was the Hardest Part’

Garner and Affleck, both 53, share three children — Violet Anne, Seraphina Rose and Samuel. After ending their 10-year marriage in 2015, the former couple finalised their divorce in 2018. In the aftermath, Garner said she leaned heavily on her inner circle to stay grounded.

“I make a big, concerted effort to see my people as much as I can, because that’s what matters,” the Alias star told the magazine. “That’s where your resilience is: it’s in your relationships and in the people who carry you through.”
Despite the challenges, Garner has continued to balance her professional commitments with her role as a hands-on mother. Alongside acting, she remains deeply involved in advocacy work with Save the Children US and Once Upon a Farm.

Parenting, Co-Parenting and Letting Go

Garner also spoke warmly about her children, now aged 20, 17 and 13, admitting that parenting has evolved significantly as they’ve grown older.

“They’re just so cool!” she said. “Parenting now has shifted. It’s more about parenting with a button on my mouth…. You have to let them grow up and make their choices. You don’t get to control it.”

Currently dating businessman John Miller, Garner acknowledged that co-parenting with Affleck while living in the public eye hasn’t been easy. She described it as “the hardest thing. Not hard in the grand scheme of what is hard in the world, but tricky for me and tricky for my family.”