Remember when Ben Affleck went to rehab in August and it was reported that his divorce with Jennifer Garner had been finalized? Then, early in October, there was yet another report in People that it had been finalized. Neither of those were accurate because their divorce was signed off on just last week, according to TMZ. So it’s final final. They used lawyer Laura Wasser to mediate for them, which is likely how TMZ got the news as she’s a source for them. They were married on June 29, 2005 so their marriage officially lasted 13 years.
TMZ broke the story … the private judge they hired dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s and they submitted the final docs to an L.A. County Superior Court judge last week.
It often takes weeks, even longer to get some action at the courthouse, but the judge signed off Wednesday and Ben and Jen are now single.
As we reported, they did the divorce without hiring a lawyer. They used Laura Wasser, who is a lawyer, but she didn’t operate in that capacity for them. Wasser mediated the entire divorce.
Ben and Jen will share joint custody of their 3 kids. They also agreed to meet with a coparenting therapist on a monthly basis for a minimum of 6 months.
As we reported, they did not have a prenup and have agreed on the property split.
There’s more of a recap in this post of some of their on-off shenanigans after the nanny scandal of the summer of 2015, but I could never recap it all. There were so many reports about them, but it was all very subdued and positive compared to what we’ve seen from other celebrity couples. It took a full three years for them to make it official but they never fought through the press or in court, I have to hand it to them. Jen just waited until Ben showed his ass and she pointed it out lightly. It’s like she sighed and said “look his ass is showing,” people realized she’d been covering it for him for years and that’s it. She knows him and she played it expertly. He did a lot of stupid sh-t but he didn’t smear her either. At least that’s all they showed to the press. It took a long time but they did it for their kids.
Also there are rumors that Ben has a sex tape with Shauna Sexton and that he’s dating an actress named Janina Gavankar who is in the film he’s working on. I doubt either of those stories are true.
Ben and Jen are shown in 2008, 2010 and 2011. Credit: WENN
Good luck to them and the kids.
I never got his appeal, he’s a good actor but never got why women threw themselves at him – looks wise he’s never done it for me.
Yes, yes and yes. I really never got his appeal. Although I can see why some did, not so much because of his looks but because of the smart-funny persona he seemed to cultivate.
I remember my mom, who never really comments on “young” celebs, swooning over him in Pearl Harbor. Lol.
I always wondered why GP was with him. I wondered why JLo was with him. I wondered why JG was with him. Never saw his appeal at all.
Their children are beautiful. Hope they grow up unscathed.
I thought he was quite good looking in his twenties, but similar to Leo D. (who was far prettier, don’t get me wrong), the constant partying and drinking wrecked their looks by the thirties. They look fine now. Not unattractive but nothing special, either.
He is not a good actor, but he is a good director and writer. I have found him attractive in the past, but he has not aged well due to heavy drinking and smoking.
Three years is a long time to be stuck in that limbo. Ben’s stocks have really plummeted in that time.
Wow look at Ben’s old face. Or face without bloat.
Ben even looks so different from when they first announced their divorce…
I know, right? I think it’s a combination of partying bloat and whatever fillers he did during his Batman time. He for sure started doing some kind of plastic surgery stuff to his face around that time. He face was so distracting during those press tours.
It’s good it was never contentious
Ben had it all and threw it away. Now he dates 22 year old Playboy models and has to have his ex wife pick up Burger King meals for him in a drive-thru en route to rehab. It’s terribly sad.
She spent so long enabling and covering for him that all she had to do was release positive stories about her devotion to the children etc. and NOT do anything to shield him from the consequences of his behaviour. She knew he’d trash his reputation all by himself.
Having said that, I think she is genuinely doing her best to co-parent with him and he at least had the decency not to set his PR people on the mother of his children to try and look better so hopefully the kids will come out of this relatively unscathed.
Yeah – as high-profile Hollywood divorces go, this one was about as dignified as it gets. Kudos to Garner – and to Affleck, who could have gone all Brad Pitt and didn’t.
Brad Pitt could learn a few things from the way Ben Affleck handled this, and that’s really saying something. Even though Ben runs around with nannies and playboy models, he never once smeared Jennifer in the press. It’s obvious he knows she is a good mother doing her best to shield the kids from his bad behavior. Instead of “sources” running to page 6 and TMZ to trash the mother, it seems he understood that would only damage the kids and his relationship with them. Take notes, Brad. You can be a philandering alcoholic without badmouthing your children’s mother.
You know what, that’s a really good point. Even with his nanny/playmate hijinks, Ben comes out of this looking so much better than Brad.
Yeah, you come out of this more thinking he’s a terrible partner but not necessarily a completely awful human being. A delusional addict, sure, but mostly harmful to himself. Then again, having a violent incident on a plane with one of your kids is pretty hard to top.
I don’t know…I feel they are on the same level. It’s another thing to have an affair with the nanny instead of outside. The kids know their nanny so it hits too close to home. I thought this was very cruel of him. I also remember him making desperate pap run to have ice cream with his daughter and then giving her an awkward hug just to have some good pr.
Their antics and desperation will remain online for years, for the kids to read and relive.
You’re comparing apples to oranges. Jolie and Garner have approached the break up of their marriage and the lives of their children in quite different ways. Wasser, who negotiated the Garner/Affleck divorce, quit Jolie. There’s conclusions to be made in that fact.
It seems that you’re implying that the actions of Jolie (using every legal resource available to her to ensure the safety and well being of 6 children) are responsible for Brad’s abusive PR tactics. And also, you don’t know what Garner may have demanded from Ben to keep her own kids safe, to Ben’s credit because he isn’t sending his PR people running to the tabloids to trash her for it. Ben probably also never put hands on any of their kids, either, which Brad DID. Apples and oranges, indeed. And yes, he messed around with their nanny but he didn’t follow that up with hurtful comments in the tabloids about their own mother! I never said Affleck did no wrong, because of course he acted like a total mess and hurt his wife and kids badly. I said at least he didn’t try to gaslight the public after he behaved badly by lamenting about how terrible this publicity is for the kids, when his team is the one perpetuating it! And also, Ben likely was a lot more cooperative in negotiations in regards to Garner’s demands for safeguards (which I guarantee are in place). While Brad thinks 50/50 is his due, despite physical abuse on an airplane that ultimately got the FBI and CPS involved in some capacity. So yes, in those aspects we are speaking apples and oranges. But when speaking of smear campaigns in the media, Brad’s showing his a$$ while Ben wisely stayed quiet and kept their negotiations private.
In your opening phrase of your first sentence you’ve implied the children are unsafe with Brad and need protection, contrary to the judge’s expressly written opinion to the contrary, who knows EVERYTHING from the beginning via all the therapists and professionals involved in their case. I didn’t read further. So I’ll just leave it at that- we have very different opinions.
I think it probably has a lot to do with mediation vs. attorneys. Which is basically what LadyT says.
I couldn’t disagree more. Actions speak louder than words. Ben may not have said anything negative about Jen (in the press), but he flaunted his relationships with the nanny, Shookus and the Playmate just to hurt her. Brad still hasn’t been seen with another woman or in another relationship. He’s keeping that on the DL.
Kudos to them for doing their divorce their own way & not caring how anyone or everyone else felt they should finalize their divorce. They clearly put their children above their dislike for each other & their children will be better for it!
Jen will roll out a new romance the same way, not caring when anyone feels it is time, but when she is ready ( and more importantly when their children are ready)
I wish Ben the best with his sobriety…he has a tough road to climb…
Amen. They put their children first, above their pain, dislike and disappointment. Great example of how it can be done in the best interest of the children. Very admirable.
This mess of a marriage always proved to me that the love of a ‘good’ woman cannot change a man. She did everything right, even gave him the boy he wanted, and it still wasn’t enough. Romance novels have lied to us!
If Shookus really was his mistress while he was still “with” Jen, then yeah, he did smear Jen by going public with her. He could have picked any woman in the world to be with and he chose her. Then came the 22-yr-old Shauna. It amazes me that some people think that he has behaved himself during this divorce process. Continued drinking, flaunting his inappropriate relationships, looking miserable when actually with his children who will see all of this on the internet if they haven’t already… smh.
Going public with Shookus was his signal to Jen that, even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to take him back after that. She’d lose too much face. That entire relationship was designed to hurt Jen. He didn’t need to run to the press to say bad things about her when he was capable of worse.
If you look at the Affleck or Garner tags on this site, rumors about cheating, addiction and divorce go back YEARS with these two, not just since 2015. This should have ended long ago. Jen clung to him and this marriage too long. Hopefully the codependency has truly ended and Jen will genuinely move on (but I’ll believe that when I see it). As for Ben, he is a succubus and will eventually find someone else to squeeze the life out of and devote herself entirely to his well-being. Someone else is going to waste her good, young years on him.
Wow, that very first pic say it all about their entire relationship honestly. I dated a few Affleck’s, 13 and 16 years later they are still the same. One woman has sadly married one of my exes and I feel for her honestly. He tries to message me a lot wistful about the past, all while with two kids with his wife. I am grateful everyday I never married or had kids with them!