We know Jennifer Garner is doing well with her new bestie, Ina Garten, because she posted a photo with Ina taken at In-N-Out Burger and helped promote Ina’s book. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Jennifer Garner’s relationship with restaurant technology CEO John Miller. She could post a photo of the back of John’s head as he does something, like decorate for Christmas or help cook, it’s not like she has to be so obvious as to pose with him. The press would cover it and the subtext would be that they’re doing well. Instead there are competing stories about whether they’re serious or not. This same tactic was used in an earlier press round about their relationship. It’s been a few weeks so rinse and repeat. Note that both of these outlets, Entertainment Tonight which had the original story and US Magazine which had the response, have received insider quotes from Garner’s camp in the past. I doubt either ran these stories without the go-ahead. Here are the quotes.
Entertainment Tonight: Jen ‘has slowed things down’
A source tells ET that “Jen has slowed things down with John Miller since the word got out they were dating. Jen’s children, career and Ben [Affleck] are her main focus at the moment and she is not ready for anything too serious.”The source adds that the Peppermint star had confided to friends recently that she’s not looking for anything too demanding right now.
“Privately, she has told friends she doesn’t want to be deeply committed at the moment,” the source says. “She wants to focus on family, career and getting Ben back on track. She enjoys her time with John but she has concerns of moving too quickly because she doesn’t want to be disappointed. Her friends are in full support of her stepping back a bit because they all know relationships take a lot of work and right now her plate is full.”
“She still communicates with Ben almost daily because his sobriety is so important, she wants be a strong support and he leans on her a lot,” the source adds. “She truly is a great friend to him and an amazing mother.”
US Magazine: Jen and John ‘are solid as a couple and committed’
“They are solid as a couple and committed,” a source told Us Weekly on Tuesday, December 11, just one day after Entertainment Tonight reported Opens a New Window. that the pair were slowing things down.“John and Jen are going stronger than ever,” the insider added. “They are still spending a lot of time together.”
The source noted that the Cali Group CEO, 40, “will typically spend the night” at the 46-year-old Peppermint actress’ house “because it’s easier to be unnoticed there.” The insider also revealed that the couple “also went away together over Thanksgiving weekend.”
[From Entertainment Tonight and US Magazine]
This is a tired scheme as I mentioned. It may serve a dual purpose though. This may help Garner avoid culpability for these stories. What does she tell her boyfriend about this? Does she say that ET ran the story without her side’s go-ahead and that she’s only refuting it because it’s necessary? Does she say that it happens without input from her and that it’s part of being famous? I know people have affection for her and will say I’m wrong and this is all press speculation, that’s fine. I’ve been watching this, all day, for years. This is all heavily orchestrated so we’ll talk about it. It’s working, but the response is supposed to be that she has no choice in the matter. She has a choice whether the press covers her personal life. Before this we’d almost forgotten about the new guy, right?
Oh and she posted a video where she’s baking at 5:30 in the morning and trying not to wake anyone up. I also do crap in the kitchen around 5 a.m. and have to try to be quiet. I’m Type A and have to contain the urge to try to control things.
photos credit: Backgrid and Avalon.red
When reading stories here becomes an endurance challenge… eye rolls forever. I guess I’ll go shop on Amazon hahahaha no
I really hope keeping “Ben” on track is not her priority over her intimate relationships!!! Wow
LOL…this is the way i read that part: “…and getting Ben back…er…on track that is.” Jen is so dysfunctionally codependant of Ben. I feel like the more he tries to push her away the more she grabs onto him. She keeps going back to Ben somehow. She’d do better adopting a rescue dog, it would be more grateful and pay her back with the unconditional love Ben will never give her.
Maybe is the opposite. Ben is an addict, a sick man and they have kids together. Maybe he relies on her as a mother to raise their children. We don’t know all the details of their life.
God, I hope her focus isn’t getting Ben back on track and maintaining daily contact with him to keep his sobriety in check. I do think he’s a decent father when he’s sober, so I understand wanting to keep him on track for her kid’s sake – but she can’t be responsible for his sobriety anymore. I would think she’d want to move on with her life to some degree?
It kind of makes you wonder why they even bothered splitting up. I dunno.
🙄🙄🙄…dammit my eyeroll emoji just broke.
This is our fault folks! Her comeback projects fizzled so she’s back to focusing on selling the personal life. We’re going to be treated to these “updates” forever! If only we watched her crappy TV show and movie none of this would have happened. 😒
Haaaaaaa!!! +1
Now we wait for Jen’s PR people to make some grand comments in her defense as “readers”
Jennifer is so underrated and interesting. I could read about her all day.
She is so saccharine, she gives me diabetes.
She is a hillbilly, not that there’s anything wrong with it.
She is beautiful in jeans and ankle boots.
I really love her red skirt! Wow! Dress more like that Jen! The first outfit is not bad but her jeans seem kind of Mom jeans to me.
I was really hoping after her long protracted divorce this tedious coverage would stop. And of course no, it just keeps referring Ben and how committed she is to Ben. Look I get it, he’s the father of her kids and she was clearly deeply in love with him. But I don’t need a million updates on how great they are at coparenting and how Jen supports his sobriety and how she may or may not be committed to her boyfriend. It’s almost like I’m reading a bad menage a trois story.
Isn’t her house big enough that she can cook or bake or whatever in the kitchen with out disturbing her kids?!
Think that was throw in to further illustrate what a great mother she is.
You never know how her house is set up. The kids’ room may be right above the kitchen, and no parent EVER wants their kids up at 5AM.
Additionally, whoever is making her instagram videos is truly fantastic. I believe at one time she said it was a silly idea with her assistant and an iPhone. Someone, somewhere has real editing/production skills.
I think this time of the year is tough on both of them. They both want to spend the holidays with their children & probably even enjoy spending time with their children together! 2 of their children are still young. I think i read somewhere that they had planned to separate before(before they divorced) but then spent the holidays with their children that year & did not separate. They both clearly put their children first, which does not always happen in a divorce…….
Nothing has really turned out the way that she planned. Both of her big acting comebacks have flopped. The HFPA loves nominating its ~stars whether they deserve it or not and she couldn’t even get a Golden Globe nomination over the likes of Debra Messing. The day after she doesn’t get nominated we get this Saint Jen story about how she’s putting her new relationship on hold to nurture poor Ben. Her fake boyfriend was revealed to be still married when she rolled him out, as well as a lipless control freak. She tried to maintain relevancy without Ben but failed. Unsurprisingly, her people are running to every outlet with conflicting stories to try to drum up interest in her. I find it all very pathetic.
I’m sorry, but I LOL’d at “lipless.” It’s true. He’s handsome, but the thin lip thing is a problem for me.
The only reason her people ran to the tabloids about John Miller in the first place was because the noise about Jen not having moved on from Ben was getting too loud. She has been spotted in his presence exactly once, she looked like crap and it didn’t look like a date at all. For someone who claims that it’s useless to move because the paps will ALWAYS find her, I find it interesting that she’s never been spotted anywhere near him but that one deliberate pap stroll.
X17 is the site that first floated the idea that Garner and Miller had broken up. They offered no proof whatsoever, they just titled videos and pics that way. Then when Entertainment Tonight ran that story, X17 created a post off of it.
People who have been paying attention to this person and Ben Affleck over the last several years already know the answer. She’ll never, ever move on from him. Period. She said it herself in an interview. He’s the love of her life and there’s nothing she can do about it. She has shown over the last 13 years that she’s fine with him trampling all over her and even cheating (as long as the public doesn’t find out about it) so long as she’s on his arm in public and he says the right Family Man things in interviews. The (fake) boyfriend didn’t go over quite as perfectly as she wanted to. It won’t surprise me if she tries to forge a way back to him now that she knows she can’t make it without him. Being his wife and mother is the only solid gig that she can get. She’s pushing 50 and this is it for her. Even all of the are-they-or-aren’t-they is more press than she can get otherwise.
The (fake) bf stays at Jen’s house because it’s “easier to go unnoticed”? Oh really? Sounds like BS. The paps camp out on her street and they’ve never photographed him coming or going. I’d be shocked if he even knows where she lives, let alone spent the night there.
Third Option: there is no relationship.
Jennifer’s boyfriend is fake. There has only been one set up picture of them hanging out and she dressed down. While I get that dating in general would be awkward for her, Ben will have a new girlfriend in a few weeks. She gets too involved into his love life and it isn’t her business anymore. All this waiting around for Ben she is going to be 60 one day and still alone because she refuses to put him in the past. Take a trip with girlfriends, spend more time with her side of the family, something other than Ben. Her own mom says she hardly sees her. I can’t wait for the day each of them have their own happiness and their own time with the kids. The kids will be fine and will adjust to new lifestyles, it happens.
She is setting a terrible example for her children.