Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have come a long way since their divorce 11 years ago. While they may not always agree, their co-parenting partnership is strong. Recently, Affleck made rare comments about a crucial way that he and Garner are in sync when it comes to parenting their three kids.
“You put something on your children when you have a public life, and that’s complicated,” Affleck told E! News at the premiere of The Rip. “And I think Jen [Garner] and I, and I know Matt [Damon] and his wife, we really want to give them room to figure out what they want to do.”
“I wouldn’t push them into that,” he continued. “They’re all — Matt’s kids, my kids — they’re all brilliant and lovely and wonderful, and we love them, and we’re proud of them.”
“And hope that they don’t waste their life acting,” he added.
The Good Will Hunting star’s words echo similar thoughts Garner recently shared.
“Parenting now has shifted. It’s more about parenting with a button on my mouth…. You have to let them grow up and make their choices,” she told Marie Claire. “You don’t get to control it.”
Like Affleck, she is also “so proud of how they walk through the world, and proud of them for trying hard.”
The former couple share three kids: Samuel, 13, Seraphina, 16, and Violet, 20. Samuel and Seraphina aren’t spotted much outside their outings with their parents, but their older sister has shown a penchant for activism.
In May 2025, Violet published an academic research paper, A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles, in Yale’s Global Health Review. In it, she compared the response to the Los Angeles wildfires to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four months later, Violet stood before the United Nations. She talked about preventing the spread of long COVID by masking and passionately advocated for clean air as a basic human right.
“We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future,” Violet said. “But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”
Both Affleck and Garner seem to be in awe of their daughter’s passion.
“I could not be more proud of my children. I can’t even tell you,” Affleck told Access Hollywood at the October premiere of Kiss of the Spider Woman. “She takes after her mom; she’s spectacular.”
He then praised co-parent Garner, gushing that he’s “very lucky that I’ve got a great partner, and we’ve got great kids, and it’s the joy of my life, and I’m just very, very lucky. It makes me happy every day.”
Next, Jennifer Garner Makes Rare Comments About the Hardest Part of Her Divorce From Ben Affleck