Ben Affleck is one of those celebrities whose offscreen adventures seem just as captivating as his onscreen ones. He’s been a gambling bad boy thrown out of casinos, and he’s had a messy and sometimes very public fight with alcoholism. And, of course, all the man has to do is pick up some food to suddenly become a viral meme.
Of course, we only know Ben Affleck from the different stories of his escapades. To know what the man is really like, it’s important to hear it from those who know best. In this case, that would be his ex-girlfriends!
Just what did the exes have to say, and what major secrets has Affleck been hiding? Keep reading to find out!
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner was one of the most serious romances in Affleck’s life. After he stopped dating Jennifer Lopez in 2004, he began dating Garner. They married the following year, had three children together, but then got divorced back in 2015.
After the divorce, Garner opened up about what a romance with Affleck was really like in an interview with Vanity Fair. “He’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.”
She was quick to add that things weren’t all bad, though. “I ran down the beach to him, and I would again,” she said. “He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous.” All things considered, Affleck seems to be in a good place with Garner, and the two remain committed to co-parenting their children.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Once upon a time, Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow were a real Hollywood power couple. Beginning in 1997, the two began dating intermittently for about three years. Interestingly, we could see their shared chemistry in certain onscreen performances, including when they starred in the hit movie Shakespeare in Love.
After they broke things off, Paltrow spilled the tea about Affleck on a few occasions. Once, in an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer, Paltrow said that “Ben makes life tough for himself. He’s got a lot of complication, and you know, he really is a great guy. So I hope he sorts himself out.”
She elaborated on this point 12 years later in an interview with Howard Stern. As reported by People, Paltrow told the host that “He’s super intelligent and really, really talented and he’s funny. But he wasn’t in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend.”
That may have changed now that Affleck is back with Lopez, and Paltrow couldn’t help but fangirl out over on Instagram. As the Daily Mail reports, when a fan asked how Paltrow felt about the return of “Bennifer,” she wrote, “Love!!! So romantic!!! Very happy for them.”
Shauna Sexton
Shauna Sexton is a former Playboy model who had a brief relationship with Affleck back in 2018. Unfortunately, she ended up getting a lot of flack from Affleck’s fans because the actor checked himself into rehab for an alcohol addiction towards the end of their relationship. This caused fans to look into Sexton’s own history of partying and drinking and to suggest that she was responsible for Affleck’s problems with alcohol.
While she later deleted the post, Sexton eventually took to Instagram to defend herself and talk a bit about Affleck. As People reports, she wrote that despite her own problems with alcohol (including underage drinking and previous public intoxication), she refrained from drinking around the Hollywood star. Eventually, she got very blunt with her critics, writing that, “Ben is a grown a** man. He makes his own decisions. Blaming a 22-year-old for someone’s 3rd time in rehab is just ridiculous. He is human. I am human.”
Ana de Armas
Ben Affleck just keeps ending up in relationships with his costars. In the case of Ana de Armas, the two starred in Deep Water together, and they enjoyed a brief but seemingly passionate relationship. In fact, Affleck, typically allergic to paparazzi, wasn’t afraid to kiss and show her immense affection even when the cameras were flashing as the two took her dog for a walk.
The two broke up in 2021, and there were different accounts of why they broke up. Some said it was because de Armas didn’t want to live in Los Angeles, and others said it was a mutual breakup because their lives were going in different directions. Eventually, de Armas gave an interview with Elle that clarified the reason behind the breakup. In short, she hated all of the media frenzies that comes from dating a Hollywood megastar. “[It was] horrible … That’s one of the reasons why I left L.A.”
Jennifer Lopez
These days, Jennifer Lopez is no longer an ex. After their breakup way back when, Affleck and Lopez began dating again. Things moved pretty fast from there, with the couple getting engaged and then getting married in record time.
These two getting back together seemed like a surprise to many fans. However, those that paid attention to how Lopez talked about Affleck over the years may not have been so surprised. As she told People back in 2016 about her relationship with him, “I think different time different thing, who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there.”
After getting back together with Affleck, she gave another interview with People elaborating on how much she enjoyed watching Affleck grow as a person. “To see the person, the human being, the man that he is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is — he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be.”
Now that these two are back together, we wish them only the best. But if they start talking about inflicting a second Gigli movie on us, all bets are off!