Ben Affleck reflects on 'painful' speculation he blamed ex-wife Jennifer Garner ... trends now

Ben Affleck has reflected on 'painful' speculation he blamed ex-wife Jennifer Garner for his alcoholism in a 2021 interview with Howard Stern, which saw the star state he felt 'trapped' in his marriage.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Thursday, the 50-year-old actor, writer and director looked back at an interview in which he opened up about his struggles with addiction and the dissolution of his marriage.

In the original interview, Affleck stated that 'Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped,' which led viewers — and even some of his ex-wife Jennifer Garner's friends — to think that he was blaming his ex for his drinking problems.

The Armageddon star described the uproar over the Stern interview as painful, and stressed that the takeaway from much of the public was 'actually the opposite of what I meant.'

Affleck got on the subject after showering his current wife Jennifer Lopez, 53, with compliments over her unparalleled mastery of social media and interviews.

'I view these things as land mines, where if you say one wrong thing, your career might be over,' he explained. 'I had a really painful experience where I did an interview where I was really vulnerable, and the entire pickup was something that was not only not right, it was actually the opposite of what I meant.'

He continued: 'The idea [was] that I was blaming my wife for my drinking. To be clear, my behavior is my responsibility entirely.'

Affleck clarified that he had been trying to make a 'sad' point in the earlier interview.

'Anyone who's been through divorce makes that calculus of, How much do we try?' he continued.

Affleck and Garner, 50, announced that they were separating in 2015, and their divorce was finalized three years later.

'We loved each other. We care about each other. We have respect for each other,' he said of his relationship with his ex. 'I was trying to say, "Hey, look, I was drinking too much, and the less happy you become, whether it's your job, your marriage, it's just that as your life becomes more difficult, if you're doing things to fill a hole that aren't healthy, you're going to start doing more of those things." I think I was pretty articulate about that.'

He continued, claiming that publications had 'deliberately mischaracterized [his remarks] in order to make it clickbait, and everyone else then picked it up, and it didn’t matter how many times I said, “I do not feel this way. I’m telling you, I don’t blame my ex-wife for my alcoholism.” So, yeah. It’s hard.'

Shortly after he made the original remarks, Affleck was beset by criticism, some of

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