Ben Affleck Gets Candid About Divorce from Jennifer Garner

Ben Affleck is reflecting on his past and present relationships in a new interview with Howard Stern.

“The Tender Bar” star rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez earlier this year, and Stern asked if he had ever thought about getting back together with the singer after they split in 2004.

“It crossed my mind for sure,” he said, adding, “My responsibility to my children is the highest responsibility. I don’t want to do anything that is painful or destructive to them if I can help it.”

Affleck and ex-wife Jennifer Garner have three children together: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9.

Ben recognizes that having famous parents can take its toll. “My life affects them,” he said. “Me and their mom are celebrities. That is hard. That is a cross to bear.”

He got real about his drinking during the split with Garner, saying, “We probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats. I probably still would’ve been drinking... Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped.”

Ben said, “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”

Affleck recalled “horrible lies” in the tabloids during their breakup in 2015, saying, “The truth was we took our time, we made the decision, we grew apart. We had a marriage that didn’t work. We tried because we had kids. We did not want it to be the model of marriage for the kids. We did our best. I knew she was a good mom, and I hoped she knew I was a good dad. I had to get sober, and I acknowledge that.”