Ben Affleck Felt 'Trapped' In Jennifer Garner Marriage: 'We Grew Apart'

Ben Affleck is getting candid about his divorce from ex-wife Jennifer Garner and how the breakdown of their marriage contributed to his alcoholism.

Affleck, 49, who has been to rehab multiple times for alcohol addiction, revealed during a recent interview on SiriusXM’s "The Howard Stern Show" that feeling "trapped" in his marriage with Garner, also 49, led him to drink.

"We probably would’ve ended up at each other’s throats. I probably still would’ve been drinking," he admitted to Howard Stern of feeling unhappy in their marriage. "Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped."

He continued, "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."

The "Daredevil" co-stars, who tied the knot in June 2005, called it quits in 2015 after 10 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in 2018. They share three children — Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9.

At the time of the former couple's split, rumors swirled that Affleck had an affair with the children's then-nanny, Christine Ouzounian. The "Gone Girl" star denied the speculation via his representative, calling the reports "complete garbage and full of lies" in July 2015.

Garner later told Vanity Fair that she and Affleck decided to split up long before Ouzounian entered the picture.

During his chat with Stern, Affleck once more emphasized that most tabloid reports about their 2015 split had gotten it wrong. He stressed that he and Garner did all they could to make their marriage work for the sake of their children but ultimately decided to part ways after realizing that they didn't want this to be the model that their kids see of marriage.

"Everything you read [in the news about the divorce] was bulls–t. The truth was we took our time, we made our decision … We grew apart," he explained. "We had a marriage that didn’t work. This happens. She’s somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer."

Despite their difficulties, Affleck said that he and Garner "amicably" ended their marriage. The "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" star admitted that they did have moments of tension and disagreements over custody while they were finalizing the divorce, but it was always "underpinned with a respect."

The "Justice League" actor praised Garner as a "good mom," adding that he hopes she also thinks of him as a "good dad."

Affleck also revealed that once he hit rock bottom, it took a year and a half to get sober. The Hollywood star said the cure was "suffering," explaining that he reached a point where he felt he had suffered enough and realized that he was "done" with drinking.

Affleck confessed that he felt "lucky" that he was able to get sober before he "lost the things that were most important," which were his children.

"When I felt as if it impacted them, I recognized it," he continued. "It was the worst day of my life. I made amends … But since that day, I swear to Christ, I have not ever wanted to drink once."

Following his divorce, Affleck dated "Saturday Night Live" producer Lindsay Shookus and actress Ana de Armas. In April, he rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez, to whom he was engaged in the early 2000s, and has been dating the singer since then.

Garner has also moved on with John Miller.

Affleck previously spoke about going on a downward spiral when his marriage to Garner started to break down during an interview with The New York Times in 2020.

"You’re trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse," he said. "Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can’t break. That’s at least what happened to me."