Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner seem to have been on the same page. Sure, the exes decided to go their separate ways in 2015, but when it comes to [co-]parenting their three kids — Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13 — they stick to the same narrative.
In a recent interview with GQ, Affleck opened up about the constant media frenzy surrounding his life. He apparently takes the comments about his stank face and spilled coffee in stride and has come to terms with the constant fabrications (at best). He tells himself, “Look, I know what’s going on in my life.”
Even more important, his kids know what’s going on. They have reportedly come to recognize fact from fiction, and Affleck credits that with the way he and Garner would respond if their kids spotted a tabloid.
“We used to have a thing, my ex-wife and I, when they would see something on a supermarket stand, we would say, well, ‘You know this isn’t always true because if it were, you would have 15 brothers or sisters or whatever the number of stories is where they said that your mom was pregnant,’” Affleck told GQ. “And I’m really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner … who’s wonderful and great and we work together well.”
Instead of shielding their three kids from the tabloids, they taught them to think critically about the headlines they were seeing. It’s a skill that has probably served them well in the long run. Especially over the last year when Affleck and ex Jennifer Lopez began what seems like a messy divorce. And yet, the actor suggested the situation would make people’s eyes “glaze over with boredom” if they knew the truth.
The Academy Award winner also opened up about his production company, Artists Equity. He works a 9-to-5 there, and that was apparently by design.
“The reason that I first did this was because I recognized that the most important thing to me was both being a parent and being present, and that for my own sake, going [on location] to do some movie, I was really missing time I could never get back,” Affleck said. “My kids were 8, 11, and 14, and I felt like: I don’t want to miss any of this time at all. And so I thought, ‘Let me figure out a way to work at home and have the kind of job where I can actually be here and build my schedule around that.’”
And the Argo star certainly does get to spend a lot of quality time with his kids. He is often spotted sitting courtside at an NBA game with his basketball-loving son Sam. And, despite how scary the situation was, he looked so relieved to be near his kids during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
To be near them, and to be near Garner. The “wonderful” co-parent who sticks to the perfectly written script.
These celebrity exes are getting co-parenting right.
