Ben Affleck on Recently Losing His Parents Just 2 Months Apart

Ben Affleck is opening up about the loss of both his parents and how finding his mom’s old letters changed his perspective.

Affleck shared his thoughts with his “Animals” co-star Kerry Washington on her podcast “The Street You Grew Up On.”

Ben explained, “My parents just died, both of them. In April and in June. So, I’ve been just like, you know, not just now or anything, but it’s just sort of a big thing.”

His mother Chris Anne Affleck died in June at 83 following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Timothy Affleck, 76, died in April. Ben’s brother Casey Affleck just shared the news of his passing in September at the Venice Film Festival. Chris and Timothy reportedly divorced when Ben was around 11 or 12.

Ben said of the losses, “It’s caused me to start thinking about my own childhood in ways that [have] been a little bit different.”

He went on, “I’ve certainly learned to sort of even more deeply appreciate my mom and really value and see what she did and what the sacrifice and commitment that she made and how complete it was.”

Affleck said that after his mom died he found some letters she had written to her family while she was living in California. The letters were written before she had Ben and Casey and moved back to Boston to raise her family.

Ben confessed, “This sounds like a crazy thing to say, but it was really weird for me to read these letters."

He said in the letters Chris was “full of life and ambition and dreams” and that she wrote of becoming a social worker or teacher, and how she would travel to Mississippi for protests.

“It was really fascinating,” he said. “But of course, the thing that struck me was this has nothing to do with me. Like, she had a full life before you. This woman had her own whole life for 30 years that had zero to do with me.”

He reflected, “It’s the solipsism of being a child that’s loved probably in the right way, where you know that I knew my mom loved me no matter what. All I knew was a person who just made me and my brother the absolute most important center of her life, you know?”

Affleck added, “She was, I mean, gorgeous and smart and thoughtful and passionate. I just thought this woman’s amazing and she could do anything.

Ben now sees just how much his mother did for him and Casey, working long hours as a school teacher.

He said, “She worked really hard, and she came home and did everything… And there I was, probably a pain in the ass, like outside, didn’t want to come [in] and complain. Whatever it was, you know. And hard to wrangle, me and my brother.”

Ben said now, for the first time, “it really struck me… that I had taken for granted” everything she did.

Earlier this month, Casey spoke out about their parents’ deaths at a press conference for his film “Company” at the Venice Film Festival.