In the summer of 2015, when the government was not run by Nazi baby stealers, Ben Affleck’s affair with the nanny was big news. Do you remember that woman, Christine Ouzounian? She got papped in her bikini, got a convertible Lexus, talked about a reality show and then disappeared. I’m sure a nice cash settlement was involved in that disappearance. Prior to that one of Ouznian’s outlets of choice was Entertainment Tonight. There’s overlap between Affleck’s relationship with Ouzounian and his affair with Lindsay Shookus, which reportedly started in 2014. (US Magazine, Garner’s go-to mag, reported that detail.)
In the interim between Affleck’s nanny scandal and the press discovering his long-term affair with Shookus, he reunited with Garner. There were multiple stories in the celebrity-friendly outlets reporting this, including an US cover. So after getting busted for screwing his kids nanny and while secretly seeing an SNL producer, Affleck was publicly reuniting with Garner. (Incidentally the last time Affleck was on SNL was in 2013, when Garner came on too and they made fun of the press speculation around their marriage.)
Clearly Shookus has witnessed a lot of bullsh-t from Affleck during her relationship with him, and she was fine with that and came out the “victor,” so she’s sticking around. ET has a sourced article, written from her perspective, about how she’s supporting Ben in his alleged sobriety. Affleck doesn’t intend to propose or have Shookus move in permanently, but of course that’s ok with her. Consider everything she’s been ok with so far.
A source tells ET that the 45-year-old actor and the Saturday Night Live producer are extremely happy.
“Lindsay and Ben are very much in love,” the source says. “During Ben and Jennifer [Garner’s] split, Lindsay truly felt villainized. Every day she spent with Ben out in the world for people to see felt like another day of public scrutiny, but her love for Ben was worth it. They both learned to stick by each other during those painful months.”
The source adds that “Ben has worked incredibly hard on his sobriety and Lindsay has been his rock. He will be forever grateful for all her love and support. They are both constantly being asked if they are planning to tie the knot, but for now they taking it one day at a time.”
In fact, the source says the Justice League star is in no rush to get married again. “Ben knows he loves Lindsay, but he wants to take things slow for the sake of his sobriety. He’s actually been told to take it slow and he’s heeding that advice,” adding that “Ben isn’t ready to propose and has no plans to get engaged anytime soon, but Lindsay feels he is worth the wait.”
Meanwhile on Thursday, the couple was photographed arriving to Affleck’s Santa Monica office.
Shookus, 38, has also recently been spotted at Affleck’s home in Los Angeles, but the move isn’t permanent.
“At this point, Lindsay isn’t moving into his new house full time. Lindsay respects Ben’s space,” the source says. “Ben just bought a new house last month very nearby to Jen’s house so he can be closer to the kids.”
As for his relationship with Garner, the source explains that the exes are getting along and happily co-parenting their three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.
There’s more about how Affleck is a great co-parent with Garner but I’ll spare you. I would be embarrassed for Shookus but she’s a grown woman, she knows what she’s doing and she’s been doing it for some time. She’s not being villainized, it’s just hard not to notice the obvious details. I’m sure that was so painful for her, to be outed as Ben’s secret lover when he was fooling around with his kids nanny and then getting back with Garner. Love won in the end and she’s now his rock during his sobriety, willing to wait for him. How long has he been sober this time?
Update: Thanks to Rapunzel for pointing out that Affleck isn’t even officially divorced yet despite the fact that they filed last spring.
Photos were taken yesterday outside of Affleck’s office and are credit: Backgrid
Shoot for the stars Lindsey
*gag
I’m sure she’ll land…somewhere. Maybe on Mars or maybe in landfill. She’s gonna come down at some point folks! Place yer bets where she’ll land!
LOL!
And settle for the street lamp, I guess.
She is just gross.
yeah, the idea that she thinks she “won” is just…NO.
NO, you didn’t “win” anything, except an alcoholic gambling-addicted perpetual cheater who currently looks like doo-doo. if she really believes that he’s being faithful to her?…well, she’s gonna have a rude awakening. I mean, he was screwing around with her, the nanny and god knows who else while still married and trying to reconcile with his wife. like so many women before her in her position, she probably thinks she’ll be the one to change him.
Hopefully LS won’t waste 13+ years of her life trying to fix/save Ben the way that Jen Garner stupidly did. People never learn!
I think she will bounce within a few years. How much of a partner can he actually be to Lindsay when he is wrapped up with this constant “coparenting” time he spends with Jen? I don’t see him ever including Lindsay and treating her as an equal partner because he still relies on Jen so much to fulfill that. And his constant obsession with his sobriety, while important, has got to be EXHAUSTING to be deal with as his partner. I have dated an addict and when they want to be sober, the entire world had to revolve around their sobriety and I’m sure Ben is self absorbed in the same way.
I think Ben gets everything he wants out of the relationship but I don’t see how their current arrangement can be fulfilling for Lindsay Shookus in the long term. What kind of time will he give Lindsay during holidays if he spends every single major holiday with Jen for example? Will she ever met his children? I think he still treats her like a side piece in a lot of ways.
I guess she’s following the Kate Middleton Playbook – just keep on waiting and waiting and hope for the “best”.
What a bizarre analogy considering Kate Middleton succeeded in getting exactly what she wanted and will someday be Queen of England. But whatever…
Ben admitted years and years ago that he was not good in a relationship and didn’t want one…he wanted to continue being the party guy, drinking, cards, and boy games, maybe forever….then he met Jennifer and somehow someway, they spent years together and had children. Ben was still drinking on and off maybe and I don’t know for sure about his cheating, but I think once he’s in a relationship for a while, it goes south…..Lindsay will be nearing the 40 year mark and she needs to find someone, so I guess Ben is her best bet, but UGH….also, can I just finally say it here—I hate her terrible clothing choices every time I see them in photos–all poor choices, seems like she has little taste in dressing, and Ben also most of the time seems like a mess, too, so maybe they have this in common.
Oh dear.
Narrator: He was not.
Lol, thanks for that it was needed today.
I love this comment SO MUCH.
This made me LOL. Thank you.
Slow clap.
Sure Jan!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he still technically married to Garner? Did their divorce finalize?
Ha good point! I got so caught up thinking “wait a minute, let’s review the dates” that I forgot to mention this. I’ll add it.
I wonder if the divorce finalization is imminent and this ET piece was just to get out ahead of the, Now Ben and Lindsay are Getting Married! tabloid headlines that would be sure to follow.
Sure. I’m positive Jenn Garner would disagree. Ugh!
I don’t think this will end well for you Linsay but all the best in your future endeavours.
Her own very young child is in New York. Affleck’s young kids are in LA. Will they have an indefinite long distance relationship? For a decade? I share custody of my older son with his father and can’t imagine being a continent away from him half the time. Even when he’s at his dad’s I still am able to have lunch with him and volunteer at his school as my work schedule permits. And wouldn’t want to be a long plane ride away in case of an emergency. How do these two plan to be decent parents from opposite coasts, while also building a healthy relationship?
I think he’ll marry her at some point. She’ll probably get pregnant. Getting Garner pregnant is the only reason he married her, so I expect history to repeat itself. I also don’t think that ET has any insider sources, they are just speculating and creating clickbait. That huge diamond ring that Lindsay has been wearing since Christmas is from Ben.
Lindsey, pretty sure he’s NOT.
Garner was his game. Without her, he…… loses so much….. And Lindsay looks…. well…. a little worn… Good luck to them both.
I don’t think Ben is a lost cause, which seems to be the way that some post about him. It didn’t work out with Garner, and people need to get over it. They were a mismatch from the start. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, there’s no way he would have married her. Their doomed marriage lasted for as long as it did because he needed someone to wipe his butt, she was obsessed with him and desperate to make it work no matter what he did to her, and both enjoyed the press that their fake “perfect family” image that they put out there garnered them. Unsurprisingly, it all came crashing down in a humiliating fashion. None of this means that Ben is incapable of being happy and faithful to someone else. Jen Garner was not “his person.” I hope that he can find happiness, his kids need that.
We are talking about Ben and Lindsay here. Not Jennifer Garner.
There is literally nothing you can do about it. LOL.
He’s already been unfaithful to Lindsey with the nanny. So I don’t think he is “capable of being faithful”.
Absurd. Fidelity implies a committed relationship. Ben cheated on Jen with Lindsay, the nanny, half of LA. A married man doesn’t cheat on his mistress, he cheats on his spouse. And anyway, from all reports the Ben/Lindsay affair has been on/off for years. Still, you missed the point completely that the OP made.
You actually think that while he was married to Garner and cheating on her, he was technically “cheating” on his mistress? Oh dear… no. That’s not how it works. The only one being cheated on was Doormat Garner.
whether i guess you could say he is incapable of monogamy then. I’m sure he’s betrayed Lindsays’s trust as well even though he was married to Jennifer. This guy has the loyalty of a snake
Have you forgotten Ben’s disastrous relationship with Jennifer Lopez? He has a long history of screwing up that started long before he met Jennifer Garner. As much as people trash her for being a clingy doormat, JG improved his reputation at the time that they hooked up because he was a national punchline.
Read that headline..I vote a big no, NO he’s not.
Women ffs, look at his history with relationships. He’s a flippin’ hot mess.
Frankly she looks a bit pathetic, he’s gross.
I think in a way they had a relationship restart when they went public. Having a secret affair and being in a real committed relationship are two totally different things. Hanging out and partying for a weekend is different than living together, having dinner together every night, sharing bills etc.
And Jennifer Garner is never going to allow Ben to actually get remarried because of the way they coparent and how accommodating she is of Ben. If she actually let Ben go, she would not be able to insert herself into Ben’s life at all times. I really have a feeling she spends a large amount of her time thinking about Ben and ways she can be around him.
I don’t see either of them cutting the cord enough where either of them will find another spouse. Can you imagine Ben bringing Shookus to the soccer games where he and Jen rehearse their lines together under the tree? Will a grown man join Garner and Affleck and their kids when they go to church on Sundays? doubt it. I think Lindsay will get sick of this “coparent” BS and bounce within 2 years.
For a few weeks there I was actually enjoying the quiet no-news about the Affleck/Shookus/Garner saga. Then Jen’s gushing IG post on Father’s Day has re-ignited all of it all over again (which she knew perfectly well would happen, which is why she did it — very attention-whreish). Both of the US Weekly and ET articles reveal nothing new about the situation and are basically just clickbait.
I don’t think they are anywhere near marriage. He’s barely out of his first one. These stories always make it sound as if a woman is pining away for a proposal. They both have young kids, they may be just fine with the relationship the way it is.
She has been waiting in the wings for years. Why stop now
You mean like an evil, preying black widow spider lying in wait … to take the poor, hapless, unsuspecting male who had no choice in the matter?
I don’t think so. You can only wait in the wings if someone wants you there.
Wow that is pretty harsh. I merely meant she has been with him and waiting to be a couple for 4 years before they went public last year. No reason why she wouldn’t continue to wait. But did I hit a nerve here? Not sure why your response to my comment was that strong.
oh please. jen trapped him with a oppsie baby what do u think of her for manipulating people’s lives like that to get Ben to marry her? She was married to someone else and managed to not get pregnant her entire marriage to that other guy, meets Ben and “accidently” becomes pregnant and gets her shot gun marriage? please she is NO angel
people divorce every day and fall in love with other people. by your logic-half the population are evil witches then
@Jenfan – Sorry, didn’t mean to be harsh to you. It does irk me that there’s a general theme of spewing hatred at Lindsay – whether it’s trashing her looks, her parenting and how much time she spends with her daughter (which appears to be a lot by all appearances) – while giving Ben a pass as though he’d be great if he could just get rid of the evil woman.
I saw your other comments referencing their ‘continued drugged out, alcoholic relationship’ and asking how they could be a healthy match as an ‘alcoholic and another addict.’ I could be wrong, but I’ve never seen anything that suggests Lindsay is an addict. These kinds of fabrications probably fueled my somewhat snippy response – apologies.
I don’t know that she’s an addict but she was directly involved with two people while both were having huge relapses. I wouldn’t call her a positive influence.
Narrator: “he’s not”
Frankly, she’s shown him she’ll accept whatever sh*tsandwich he serves. Oh she may “confront” him, etc., but since she’s stood for it all, he’s got no reason to change. Not that he seems to want to.
Those words…”he is worth it.”
Those words will come back to haunt her someday!
I seriously doubt Ben is going to marry let alone get engaged to her. After all “she gives him his space.” You know what they say,” you give them an inch& they will take a mile.”
Ben will take a “Mile High”, please and thank you.
@endoplasmic…..Best comment ever!!!!
Could be wrong here but it almost seems like Lindsay directed this article for Jenn to get a hint she isn’t going anywhere. Lindsay is not the victim in this but obviously people took shots because she isn’t characteristically pretty. At some point Lindsay will be involved with family activities. You can’t control your ex husband forever. I just wish Jennifer would at least try to go on a date here and there. It doesn’t have to be serious.
Give Lindsay a wispy goatee and coveralls and she looks just like the janitor at my kids school.
She looks like a female Kevin Bacon.
Yeah, he’s a real prize.
Question?
In Gone Girl, Ben calls his wife “comolicated.”
His sister (in the mobie) says “Everyone knows that complicated is code for bitch.” What does it mean if a guy is called “complicated.” Paltrow, Lopez, & now Garner have all used “complicated” to describe Ben Affleck.
Take note, Lindsay!!!
Complicated & movie
Eyes not open yet, lol!
It was only a few months ago these two were looking pretty rough together and it was obvious he had fallen off the wagon again. So if Lindsay is his “rock” she sucks at it. I doubt he’s in a rush to get married again, he isn’t even divorced yet. They cheated while he was married to Jen and Lindsay to her husband so their odds aren’t good either.