Ben Affleck opens up about divorce and addiction in new Diane Sawyer interview

'It upset me because it meant I wasn't who I thought it was'
Margaret Abrams24 February 2020

Ben Affleck is opening up about his struggles with addiction and his divorce from actress Jennifer Garner in a new interview with Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer.

The actor has been promoting his new basketball movie, The Way Back. This week, he also spoke to The New York Times about his divorce, calling it "the biggest regret of my life." He and Garner, both 47, were officially divorced in October 2018.

Sawyer first interviewed Affleck when he was 27 and he's now 47. He's been to rehab twice in the last three years and spoke to Sawyer about how difficult it has been, especially for his family.

"I got sober when I was younger, in 2001, which I now look at as a sort of a JV version of what really a problem is. I was sober for a couple of years and then I thought I just want to drink like a normal person, I want to have wine at dinner, and I was able to. I was able to for about eight years," he tells Sawyer.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
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"I started to drink more and more and more and it was really hard for me to accept that I was an alcoholic," he says, adding that he started to drink every day and would "sit there and drink until I passed out on the couch."

His family has also struggled with addiction. His grandmother, aunt and father were all addicts. "Seeing my dad, he was drunk every day and that was just life," the Good Will Hunting actor admits. "I always said that would never be me."

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"I never thought I was going to get divorced...I really didn't want to be a split family with my children and it upset me because it meant I wasn't who I thought it was," he said, calling it "painful" and saying he was "disappointed" in himself.

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He goes on to say, "I really don't want my children to pay for my sins." He and Garner share three children, daughters Violet, 14, and Seraphina, 11 and son Samuel, 7.

He ends the first portion of the interview by saying, "Divorce is very painful and alcoholism is very painful."

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