Earlier this week we learned that Ben Affleck had taken his girlfriend/hookup of about two months, Shauna Sexton, to Big Sky, Montana, where he regularly spends holidays with his family. We knew this because she Instagrammed about it and posted a photo taken of the back of Ben’s head as he looked out the window at an elk. One of Ben’s PR people gave sourced quotes to E! about it, calling Montana “a good and a healthy place for him” where he goes “to clear his mind and be out in nature.” They also called Shauna “good company,” said the relationship was “not serious” and that she was “up for anything.” A lot of people raised their eyebrows at Ben for not only bringing Shauna with him to his family’s vacation spot, but also talking about it to the press for whatever reason. It seems clear that the quotes are from his side and not hers because they’re focused on his sobriety and not how cool and awesome she is. Well whatever happened, Ben is going to have to find a new date who is up for anything. He and Shauna are no more.
Ben Affleck and Shauna Sexton are no longer seeing each other, PEOPLE has learned.
“There was nothing to split from as it has been casual,” a friend of Affleck’s tells PEOPLE.
The end of the pair’s brief relationship comes just days after the two took a romantic vacation to Montana over the weekend, where Sexton, 22, posted a shot of Affleck, 46, on her social media for the first time.
“He enjoyed being with her but is working on himself, and being together with her at this time is not something that works,” the friend adds. “He will date in the future, but for now his focus is on his sobriety, family and his next project.”
The actor and the Playboy model first seen together at a cozy dinner at Nobu on Aug, 16, less than a week before Affleck checked into rehab seeking treatment for alcohol addiction on Aug. 22.
So what happened? Did Shauna post the photo of Ben to her IG stories without asking him first? Were the quotes in E! damage control? He reportedly dumped Lindsay because she wanted him to cut back on his drinking. I doubt Shauna is calling him on his sh-t after less than two months. Did Jen tell him to get his act together or risk his relationship with the kids? Is he still sober? Did he follow a sponsor or sober coach’s advice not to stay in this new relationship? Did Shauna get papped too much? Also – do you think she’s going to do an interview? That would be fun, but Ben usually gives his hookups a settlement to go away. It just took longer with the nanny. Shauna got 80k followers out of this. She can make a decent living with sponsored posts now.
Photos credit: Backgrid
Why are we assuming he dumped her? Why not the other way around? I know it’s tempting to see her as a gold diggin’ fame-ho, but to be honest, she’s didn’t put the ‘up for anything’ quote up in the air, she hasn’t even said anything at all to the mags about Affleck as far as I know? Commenters have been savage towards Shauna on this site, which I think is pretty unfair. Maybe, just maybe, she’s just a nice girl who simply walked away from a bad situation?
Sure Jan
The DailyFail has a story that she’s denying the split. I get that the Fail is always a question mark but it is interesting. Also People on the whole gets direct sources, so my guess is he’s going to ghost Shauna. I mean, would you really put it past Affleck?
I think the DM was recycling a Radar story. The one thing Radar is good at is directly calling people who don’t expect it and getting them to talk. They’re always reporting that so and so’s grandmother said this and a neighbor of the star said that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tracked her down somehow.
I’m guessing that she genuinely didn’t know because he either ghosted her or he just got his people to give the quotes to People because of the optics. I think she was completely caught off-guard by the People story. Time will tell if it’s actually over or if he just wants people to think it is.
I think she’s been ghosted and hadn’t realized it yet.
I believe she is going to start talking too as a “source” to the tabloids. She has no loyalty to this guy. Now she will sell him out. I wonder if she will have to give back his car like Shookus did. I hope she has some juicy stories LOL
She already denied the split through Radar. He’s saying she’s a booty call basically and she’s maxing this for PR to become a big stah in her own right. Also he has to keep her in his life for now to keep her from selling her tell-all too soon. Maybe a payout and NDA is in the works.
Um, no. I think you have to be pretty naive to think she walked away from a “bad situation.” In her mind, famous boyfriend, private jet to awesome vacation in Montana. There is no way she dumped him. I’m guessing her social media didn’t square with his message of taking his recovery seriously.
I dunno, maybe. I still believe we’re all pretty eager to judge and discredit her, you know. She’s young and she’s a Playboy model, but that does not mean she has no agency.
I agree Mary. Cherry- I think she’s a young girl out for fun/fame and enjoyed the opportunity. Not a negative, at least on her part.
I don’t see any other way, but that Ben dumped her. The last thing he needs during his attempts at sobriety is an airhead of a girlfriend that is 22 and into partying and having a good time with as much alcohol as possible. It’s also a terrible look for his image and I’m sure his employer is not happy with a 22 year old being around an alcoholic star.
He needs someone close to him that supports his sobriety, it’s a very difficult time and it could cost him his life, if he doesn’t take full responsibility for his actions.
It’s crucial that he surrounds himself with like minded people.
Wasn’t she arrested for being severely drunk not that long ago???
Most of us know why these young women hook up with the older, famous and wealthy dudes. She seems to be a major manipulator, she really tried hard to make something out of her barely 15 minutes with the pap walks.
I personally don’t find her attractive, but I can see guys wanting to have a roll in the hay with her, but not much more pass that.
You reduced her to a drunk with lady parts, good for nothing else.
@ Lisbon :
I agree with you Lisbon, who ever heard of this woman before she hooked up with Ben Affleck besides people reading Playboy.
She is one of many women trying to make it by taking their clothes off, but her hook up with Ben gave her a bit of an edge, got her some attention and she milked it with the pap walks.
Either Ben realized that she is not good for him, image wise and sobriety wise, because she is known to through back a few shots herself or somebody made him realize, most likely his agents.
Ben cares a lot about his work, so maybe they hit him with : “do you know what this 22 year old party girl from Playboy will do to your already severely damaged image”
she may be a nice girl but there is NO WAY IN HELL that she walked away from this.
she, a 22-year old Playboy “model” (her ONLY claim to fame) had an Oscar-winning A-list VERY WEALTHY actor on the hook who flew her on at least one private jet. who, outside of Playboy “readers” had any clue as to who she was before she hooked up with Affleck? nobody. yeah, she didn’t walk away. he either got an earful from his agent/his sponsor/Garner or he wised up.
Whatever it is I don’t think he is in a good place.
I hope for his kids he is committed to his sobriety.
Ben wanted one more good bang session with her before he let her go.
And it sounds like she was the last to know about this “non-dumping”.
Affleck and his bro, Damon are both d-bags with women. Didn’t Damon dump Minnie Driver on Oprah without telling her first?
winner winner chicken dinner! (that is to say, I agree completely.)
Yesterday she was traveling with him and down 4 anything…yeah okay
I suspect his meetings with Warner probably went along the lines of “are you sober? Is a Playboy model a good look for you right now”? And he got the message and ended it.
Yeah that’s more my thinking. He puts more into his work than anything (yes, including his kids); the total failure of Live By Night was clearly one of the triggers for his most recent spiral. He was told this was not a good look.
For what it’s worth, Daily Fail has a story saying Shauna has denied the split…but my guess is she’s getting ghosted just like Lindsay.
This exactly.
Completely agree.
That’s what I said late in yesterday’s post, too.
He’s supposed to be doing this “for his/my family,” but nothing about drive-thru, part-time rehab, then packing your best man-spanx to take your bang bunny to KNOWN PLACES YOU FREQUENT WITH SAID FAMILY says you’re dedicated to sobriety/recovery, let alone family or even privacy. I *think* they hoped a young gf would at least make him look like a desirable, virile (= “f√¢kable”) movie star again, but in the wake of recent events, it actually made him look desperate and kinda disrespectful.
He might still have a sliver of hope in “The Accountant 2,” but didn’t give WB execs much confidence in that meeting (he could’ve at least dressed better, “new clothes, new attitude, new me”-style). They see what we see and are just as dubious about it, the gf being one of many reasons why. They “strongly encouraged” him to ditch her or at least hide/quiet her (&/or any others) for a few gossip/news cycles and come back healthy and ready, not built yet bloated.
I personally think it was her IG posts that pushed him to break up with her. I don’t think he ever planned to get serious with her.
Yeah, I tend to think she overplayed her hand. Either that or they didn’t really break up, as someone suggested.
I agree. It was the IG posts. And the paps. She was obviously calling them. It was not a good look for him at all. The first thing you do when yo get out of rehab is hook up with your 22 year old girlfriend? Yuck. I wonder if he maintains he sobriety Shookus will take him back. They seemed very into each other.
“I wonder if he maintains he sobriety Shookus will take him back.”
God I hope she has more self-respect, but I wouldn’t be shocked. She waited around while her married lover kept up the happy family facade a bit longer….oh wait…are we supposed to still be pretending their relationship started after he split with Garner? I can’t keep track anymore. 🙄
I think she would have taken him back if he hadn’t gone public with Shauna. There is no way to save face after this
“Shauna got 80k followers out of this. She can make a decent living with sponsored posts now.”
What a crazy world we live in. That’s all I got.
I don’t know enough about the instagram world. Like what are we talking monthly? Craziness.
I was curious about this too, and from what I’m reading, it’s a matter of what sponsors you can negotiate with and what you’re selling/promoting. But even for non-celebs, it can be decent income. One artist mentioned making over $3000 in one month off his art commissions alone on Instagram with 76K followers. Actual sponsor posts can be much higher if you’re a regular poster. Some of the more popular Instagram “influencers” can charge $200-400 per promotional post. Given that Shauna has some name recognition now, she’s probably got even more leverage and could easily pull numbers in the thousands.
Textbook Midlife crisis
With anyone else I would agree.
For Affleck, it’s simply the story of his life.
At the top, self-sabotage, hit rock-bottom, bounces back.
Rinse and repeat.
I bet they’ll be photographed together within a week.
It’s going to take a lot of hard work for him to get and stay sober, so he’s better off without a casual relationship with her calling the paparazzi and using him for attention
Can’t look at these pictures without thinking of Celebitchy’s quote from last week: “meaty strut.”
Thank you! That’s super flattering.
My guess is Shauna didn’t even know their fling was over. Ben waited until they got back from Montana to issue a statement through his publicist that they were over instead of telling it to her face. That would explain why she’s denying it but she’s young and not that bright and doesn’t realize he is now ghosting her. I doubt Ben was pleased she posted a pic of him on Instagram without his permission (it’s no longer on her IG).
Of course. Despite all his cheating, BA needs to delude himself in a monogamous relationship. His long-term romantic relationships have all been with age-appropriate women who have their own career/money/life. When things are good, they are great. Then he gets into his own head, messes up something in his career/personal life and goes on a cheating bender with casual relationships (strippers with Goop and Jlo and a string of affairs with JG). Then he gets himself straight enough to climb back to the top with a partner next to him preferably. Rinse.And.Repeat!
I would say he’s getting worse. Being married was too much of a delusion to uphold. Having a long-term affair with Shookus proves this. It remains to be seen if there’s another Shookus waiting in the wings, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
That said, I see a proper romantic relationship coming soon. BA wants to climb back up again and Hollywood will allow it. And some poor woman will believe she can ‘change’ him or enable him a la Shookus. Both will have the same outcome.
He needs to rehab his image for awhile before anyone truly respectable will be willing to date him. I think he thought he could fool people into thinking that Lindsay wasn’t a mistress first, but JG shattered that alternate reality real quickly. She was never going to be the right fit for what he was looking for because of that.
I don’t think his reputation has ever been this low. I don’t think anyone believes he’s actually sober either. If he wants to start that climb back to the top, he can’t take shortcuts.
Without Garner by his side helping to sell the family man image, it’s going to take a lot longer for him to achieve respectability again. She made him look good when they were married, but now her being super mom just makes him look bad by comparison.
I don’t think so. People forget he was in rehab during the JLo days as well and was caught in a lewd act with a stripper. His career was much more of a joke (read: over) as well which is why he (and Matt Damon) still blame his JLo relationship on that ‘dark’ period in his life like he wasn’t enjoying all the pampering and attention. Then JG stepped in and married that mess and gave that mess babies!
When the cheating scandal with the nanny came about, Shookus was still ‘waiting’ in the wings for him.
There will always be a respectable woman wasting her time and energy with a man like BA. Always. Female fans still stan for men like Johnny Depp; Brad Pitt, Marky Mark and high-profile actors like Scarlett J. still manage to date abusers like Penn. And the one big example: RDJ. He was a mess of a mess, in and out of jail, lost jobs, addict, deadbeat dad as well. Dude only turned his life around seriously when he met his accomplished level-headed now-wife producer Susan. And then became flippin’ Iron Man and Sherlock. You just don’t know with Hollywood! Hollywood doesn’t do morals and values like regular people. They don’t have to clearly because they keep getting rewarded anyway.
I guess I just think regardless of who he steps out with, if it’s any time soon, the general public will dislike her because she’s getting with the mess that currently is Ben Affleck.
If he sobers up, is photographed just being a dad for a bit, has a successful project or two, then steps out with someone new, people will respond in a more positive way. Whether he’s capable of staying single that long, I’m not so sure.
I think part of the problem is that the last few years he has continued to claim sobriety when he wasn’t sober at all. How many times have we heard how he’s working on himself only to soon see him in a liquor store or with stains on his shirt looking bleary eyed? It’s been going on since they split in 2015. It’s hard to believe anything his sources are claiming.
If he wants a real comeback, he’s got to actually do the work. He was never beloved like Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp. People made excuses for them when they were at their lowest. You don’t really see that with Ben.
More and more, in the pics I see of Ben, he’s almost always carrying some sort of drink – a juice, a coffee – and I’m reminded of my neighbor, who was also an alcoholic. My neighbor ALWAYS had some sort of mug/tumbler/cup in his hand, even if he was running errands or just popping over to my house to say hi. I never saw him not carrying some sort of liquid. I knew that there was more than coffee or juice in it, and he never would put it down or leave it at home or in the car. I hope I’m wrong in thinking Ben is doing the same, because I don’t want anyone to struggle with that level of dependency. It’s just a sad situation.
I don’t know, I could see that he needs the oral fixation of something to drink, not necessarily alcoholic. I don’t drink booze anymore but I am rarely without a cup of tea or sometimes coffee. And I bring it in the car for longer rides because it relaxes and/or energizes me. I’m not sure we can assume he’s off the wagon already.
You’re probably right, @Esmom, and I hope you are. As much as I really don’t like his behavior and how he treats people, I truly do hope he is sober and that he maintains his sobriety.
I’m always thirsty, so I’m never without a bottle or cup in my hand or close by, and everywhere I go, I see people with Starbucks, water bottles, or cups of soda in their hands too. I hope Ben stays strong and it really is just coffee, water, or soda in the cups he carries around. Give the guy a chance before jumping to conclusions.
Like @esmom said, it could be just the oral fixation for him. I tell my mom to put a straw in her mouth and fingers and pretend it’s a cigarette
I always have something to drink, mostly water, and sometimes soda… but this thought reminds me of my dad, when he came to visit he was very attached to his bottle of water, one on occasion he only had about 1/4 left in it, and so I offered him a new bottle for our outing, he was really weird about declining, that’s when I realized it was vodka. (My dad is an alcoholic) It was the moment I realized just how awful his life must be.
Recovering alcoholics tend to crave sugar to replace the calorie intake they got from booze. Golfer John Daly famously ate peanut M&Ms by the truckload during his many attempts at sobriety. That’s likely why you always see Affleck with a drink of some sort.
I don’t know about that. Liam Neeson quit smoking, And he replaced that with always having toothpicks with him and constantly had one in his mouth and still does.
A few years ago he quit drinking. Ever since he quit, he almost always has a tumbler with him with his special tea. He even carries tea bags with him. He talked about it.
Looks like he dumped her via his publicist. What a turd…
I love that Ben is always drinking Dunkin. He’s a true Bostonian through and through.
Thank God his kids are younger.* Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to wake up your (STILL LEGALLY MARRIED) father dropping a tidbit assuring everyone that, no worries everyone, that last chic was just some girl who had absolutely no value to him beyond a quick f*ck and distraction.
*Fun reminder that Shauna is only a decade older than his oldest daughter.
I think we say that to reassure ourselves but, Violet, at least, is no longer a young child.
I’m the first one surprised and still shocked, but I’m a teacher and my twelve-year-old students DEFINITELY know more that I would think or even feel comfortable with.
I hope JG’s carpool game is strong enough to keep parents from gossiping around their kids, otherwise recess must be hell for them (maybe not Sam. Hopefully not Sam! He IS young!)
Ben was papped looking sloppy as hell coming out of WB offices shortly after this story broke.
You do the math.
Girls a stalker, she will not let him go easy. She will make Jennifer look aloof. Ben’s her meal ticket. That’s why she quit her job so fast. He may say they are over but I don’t think so. Her inserting herself into his rehab stay says all we need to know. And honestly I think Jennifer is done with him. And he knows it. Her face in church pics says it all and the infamous burger run pic. Ben is not serious about his health, family or sobriety. He never will be. He is a gambler and has risen from the ashes several times. He will not continue to be that lucky forever.
It’s not like she was showing up unannounced at the rehab center demanding to see him. He’s an A-list star, he determines who has access to him. If he wants her out of his life, she has no say in the matter.
She has terrific abs.
Why has no one mentioned the vacation?? Isn’t that a make or break? I know several people who got dumped post vacation.
@ Andrea,
because vacation time seems the least of their issues from what we can see.
She seems to be a 22 year old very thirsty woman, nobody ever heard of before she hooked up with Ben, except a few Playboy readers, using Ben for her 15 minutes of fame and pap walks and he seems a seriously selfish messed up alcoholic and addict in the midst of a midlife crisis with 3 small young children, one divorce behind him, lots of gambling rumors and plenty of cheating.
Shauna Sexston’s IG stories are quintessential 22 year old in her feelings. Videos of her dog with love songs for the sound track. A picture quoting don’t worry about others expectations and judgements. Entertaining if you forget for a minute these are real people. 🙁
I feel bad for everyone involved really. SS is too young to know better. He’s too sick to be in a relationship. And three young kids who still don’t have a dad they can count on in any meaningful way.
I agree about her being too young to know better. We paint 22 year old women as vixens and gold diggers, when most of them are just young women without the life experience to know better. A movie star wanted to date her, so she dated him.
@ BB
Sorry, but I very much doubt that she is some ” innocent young woman ” who didn’t know better.
She is not 22 years old in 1955, in 2018 countless young people know exactly how to handle social media and especially one that was in Playboy and lives in LA.
It’s not like she is a turnip that fell off the pick-up truck on her way to the State Fair.
She went on pap walks immediately and let’s not pretend that she was someone that never heard of Ben’s alcohol issues, cheating, gambling and rehab stays.
We live in times where information is available at our fingertips at any time of day and night, plus she lives in LA an not in a cave.
I bet that very few people heard of her, besides some Playboy readers, now a lot more people heard of her, because of her hook up with Ben.
I just don’t see what she did that was so bad. She has more name recognition now, so what? It’s not like he was some devoted, upstanding boyfriend and she used him for fame and dropped him.
In all likelihood, he got what he wanted, ghosted her, then told People magazine their fling was over. She told Radar it wasn’t accurate not because she’s some clinger, but because she literally didn’t know that he was over it and over her. That’s sad to me.
I think that trying to portray her as someone who is naive, because of her age is very inaccurate and dishonest. She wouldn’t have been doing pap walks, if there was no purpose to it. She lives in Los Angeles and appeared in Playboy. She didn’t get off the bus from Kansas, the day she met Affleck. I’m a feminist and I really try to support women, but this is BS, she knew exactly what she was doing, I’m calling it as I see it and I see a thirsty woman doing her best to benefit. I’m not blaming her, I’m just saying that this is what I see.
I don’t think so, those pap walks were done for a very good reason. Shauna Sexton is only 22, which is very young, but she also lives in Los Angeles…and she is trying to make it in the entertainment business and fame and being known is a huge part of it. She is not someone who just flew in from Iowa and run into Ben Affleck at the airport. Come on!
To be clear, I know she capitalized on the attention and did pap walks, I have never said otherwise. What I’m saying is that I don’t think she understood what she was to Ben. She is literally denying they broke up. It’s like she doesn’t understand that he’s done with her and that’s just how he ended it. That is what I’m talking about when I say I feel bad for her and that she doesn’t know any better.
I am sorry for her, too. She probably was a bit involved emotionally and she thought he was going to be her meal ticket and now she comes to realize he just didn’t want to pay for it. It was probably a mixture of both on her side.
It hurts and I hope she will have more luck with her next relationship.
I don’t think Ben told her about his intentions regarding their relationship. He probably said something according to: “Let’s get to now each other” and he forgot to mention that: “I will never have a serious relationship with you because I just want to … you.” Basically he was likely frauding her under the pretense of “getting to know each other”. Oldest trick in the world since sex before marriage was decriminalised.
Blame Ben for being dishonest.
She was not even old enough to be in elementary school when he was cavorting with JLo. She was 4 or 5 years ago me during that Bentley/pink diamond/boat video mess. That gives some perspective.
What I cannot understand are the middle aged women who willingly enter or stay in his orbit.
I think she’s just a 22 year old without common sense. Period. She’s not a child, but let’s face it, 22 isn’t exactly the age where logic, maturity, and deep introspection converge. At 22, most men and women (most, not all) are still all kinds of stupid, especially with relationships and life choices.
Was she star-struck? Yeah. Did she think of him as her meal ticket? I don’t know. Maybe she just wanted to see how things would go dating a big celebrity. It was a once in a lifetime chance. If at 22, my favorite celeb crush had asked me out or invited me out to an all expense paid vacation, I probably would have gone too. Not because I would have plotted to make him my future meal ticket and settled down, but because, why not? Adventure! Romance! Excitement! Did she organize pap walks? Yes. And frankly, seeing as how she also wants a career in the entertainment industry, was smart to do so.
The onus is on Ben Affleck to establish limits on his private life. He should have told her not to put his pics on her Instagram if that’s the reason she was dumped.
I don’t think of her as an evil golddigger out to break up a marriage or steal his fortune away from his kids. I think of her as young and frankly, a dumbass. She’ll learn. This ghosting will teach her a valuable life lesson.
Agree with everything you said.
As a 50 year old I see her as a very young person, remembering well what I was like at that age. I agree with what you say.
Lacking common sense is right. Yes, she’s did pap walks for the fame and the Hollywood exposure but it’s not like Ben Affleck was helpless in all of this. Even if he had been inactive on social media, his people must have been aware that Shauna had been posting about him on social media so the excuse of dumping her because of her Instagram posts is BS. Also, I have no idea why the narrative is still that Shauna wrecked his marriage. Ben and Jen were over a long time ago. He did all the wrecking when cheated on his wife multiple times when they were married.
I guess there is no rationalizing why middle-aged women seem to enter/stay in his orbit, much less this one half his age. Shauna wasn’t even in elementary school when he was cavorting with JLo. She would have been four (maybe five) during that pink diamond/Bentley driving/butt-boat video of a mess.
God, that seems like yesterday!!
It really does!
As I’ve mentioned before my dad, RIP, was an alcoholic. Many addicts/ alcoholics are incredibly and frustratingly stubborn. Like the phrase “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” is their mantra. Assuming these two are broken up now what concerns me is Ben’s stubbornness. If you take rehab seriously you don’t date. You focus on recovery. You lean on your sponsor and whom ever else will allow you to among your existing friends and family. You call them before you take that first drink. Not after you get a box of liquor delivered to your doorstep. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch but addicts and alcoholics have to relearn life skills. They often go back to the place that got them to rehab fairly quickly if not. I worry for him as a person but mostly I worry about his kids. They are old enough that his behavior can’t be shielded from them forever. Kids see and know stuff. They just do. It’s why I felt like two or so months in a place before you start leaving the rehab is a better place to start. Sorry for the rant! I have better things to do than worry about Affleck like voting Trump out of office. But i post on stories about him because I lost my own dad and if anyone needs help or needs just to talk I can be there for you. It’s important that if you are in recovery or thinking about it or dealing with someone who is an alcoholic or addict that you can have a shoulder to cry on. I’ve seen it all. From the highest highs to death. This site rules!
I’m guessing he only liked her while he was drunk. Now that he’s sober, he doesn’t like her anymore. And she used him which is also pretty sobering for him now, too. He can see how much alcohol so much affects him that he gets taken like the silly middle aged man he is. Like half the men in Hollywood.