Ben Affleck Speaks Out About Jennifer Garner Divorce Comments

Actor Ben Affleck stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last night, where he responded to backlash over comments he made about his divorce from Jennifer Garner.

The 49-year-old recently sat down with Howard Stern, opening up about the split and making statements like he would “probably still be drinking” if they were still married.

While talking to Jimmy Kimmel, he insisted the comments were taken out of context.

"I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom," he said, referring to his three children with Garner, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, 9.

Reflecting on his talk with Stern, he recalled it being, a “long-form, in-depth” two-hour interview covering family, divorce, and alcoholism. He thought it was a meaningful conversation about “struggling with real things and how you have to be accountable, and loving how I work with my ex-wife and how I’m so proud of the way we work together for our kids the best that we can for them.”

He went on, “The irony is I was really happy with it… I thought, ‘Wow, I need to do more honest exploratory, you know, self-evaluating things.’”

It was later that he realized his words about drinking and divorce were making headlines.

Affleck told Kimmel, “I had gone on and said, like, how much we respect each other and cared about each other and cared about our kids and put them first and went through our stuff,” noting that only in the aftermath it had come across as if “I blamed my ex-wife for my alcoholism and that I felt I was trapped in this marriage.” He later added, “It’s not true. I don’t believe that… It’s the exact opposite of who I am and what I believe.”

Ben said he felt it “made me out to be, like, the worst, most insensitive, awful guy.”

Kimmel said, “This really upset you,” and Ben told him, “It hurts my feelings.”

Affleck and Garner got married in 2005 and split in 2015. He has since rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez.

J.Lo was actually at the Kimmel interview, and was spotted walking in with Ben.