“Do you blame your ex-wife for drinking?”: criticism of Ben Affleck for his controversial statements about his breakup with Jennifer Garner
In an interview with The Howard Stern Show, the director of Argo said that he felt trapped in his marriage, and that he would still have problems with alcohol if he remained married to the actress.
In recent weeks, Ben Affleck had surprised the public by his outspokenness. During the promotional tour of his new movie, The Tender Bar, he answered journalists' questions honestly, without avoiding sensitive issues or very intimate aspects of his private life. However, this Tuesday, the winner of two Oscars crossed the limits when talking about his breakup with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, or at least, so fans believe.
During an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ben Affleck blamed the actress for her addiction to alcohol. He said that if he hadn't split up with her, he would probably still be drinking today. In addition, he said that if they had stayed together, they would have ended up making life impossible for each other.
“We would have ended up destroying ourselves. I would probably still be drinking," Affleck said. “That was part of the reason I started drinking, I felt trapped. He told me: 'I can't leave because of my children, but I'm not happy. What do I do? 'What I did was drink a bottle of whiskey on the couch, and it turned out that was not the solution,' he added.
The explosive statements outraged much of the public. Through social networks, thousands of users criticized the actor, whom they called "idiot" for holding Garner responsible for her problems with her alcohol. Many demanded that the celebrity begin to own up to his own mistakes and stop blaming his ex-wife for his "self-destructive behavior."
“Do you blame your ex-wife for drinking? You were already an alcoholic before marrying her,” one user wrote on Twitter. "Speaking badly about the mother of your children makes you a terrible father and a total idiot."
"You're an Idiot. Even if that is the truth about your unhappy marriage, why would you publicly drag your ex through the mud and apparently blame her for your own self-destructive decisions? Ben Affleck confirms it: it is still the worst.
Affleck and Garner split in 2015 after 10 years together. During their marriage they had three children: Violeta, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, nine. In the opinion of many fans, with his statements the director of Argo was unfair to the actress, whom he exposed to public ridicule, but also to her children, since he did not think about the damage they could cause them. your comments.
“Ben Affleck, you are a classless idiot. I hope your kids don't talk to you again because you really aren't good enough for them,” he wrote @mimisnowball.
“I've been a fan of yours for a long time, but stop talking about Jennifer Garner. Neither of you are perfect but say you feel trapped in your marriage? I'm sure your kids will love reading about it," added user @martharuns.
The attacks continued, the conversation rose in tone and some messages were cruel and devastating, especially when mentioning Affleck's problems with alcoholism: “Therapy would have served him better than a bartender. I'm sure he's lovely to live with too," said one user.
In 2018, the Armageddon actor entered a rehabilitation center to treat his problems with alcohol. Although they had been separated for three years, Jennifer Garner was the person who drove him to the clinic, a fact that users did not overlook either.
In his talk with Howard Stern, Affleck assured that both he and the Pearl Harbor actress tried to save their marriage, but in the end they made the best decision for the sake of their children.
“In the end we tried, we tried, we tried because we had children, but we both felt that it was not the model of marriage that we wanted to give them. The truth is that we take our time, we make the decision, we separate. We had a marriage that didn't work out. We did the best. I knew that she was a good mother and I hoped that she knew that I was a good father. I had to be sober and I recognized it,” he added.
At the moment the actor has not commented on the controversy that his high-voltage interview sparked on social networks, in which he also spoke of his current relationship with Jennifer Lopez, with whom he was engaged in 2004, the same year in which they ended to your relationship. He said that for a time, he doubted whether he should return to the singer, because of the impact that this could have on her three children.
“It crossed my mind, of course. My responsibility to my children is the highest. I don't want to do anything that is painful or destructive to them if I can help it. My life affects them. His mother and I are famous. That's hard. It is a cross,” he added.
