Ben Affleck stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live last week to promote his new thriller, Animals. He plays a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped during his campaign, and Kerry Washington is his estranged wife. After making a Natalie Harp joke, Ben talked about how he and Steven Yeun, who plays his campaign manager, prepared for their roles by spending a day campaigning in character at The Grove. Apparently, no one even questioned why someone who looked like Ben Affleck was running for mayor of LA. That is crazy. Welcome to LA!

The full interview is a good watch, but the funniest thing to come out of it was Ben once again sharing how his three children with Jennifer Garner, Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14, troll the f-ck out of him. When he was promoting The Accountant 2 last year, he told Jimmy that his kids roasted him after watching Armageddon. Ben’s new story was even better. Fin called him out while they were gossiping about teenage drama during a family dinner and later trolled him while they were at a bookstore. From People:

Ben Affleck is learning that no one keeps you humble like your kids.

The father of three opened up during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, Sept. 24, about how his and ex-wife Jennifer Garner‘s kids Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14, have put him in his place.

“Now I give advice and try to talk to them, parent them as you do,” Affleck, 54, said. “What I found is that now it’s not only one teenager rolling their eyes, I’ll kind of launch into something at the dinner table and I’ll catch them giving each other looks and I realize I’m the caricature in this story.”

The Oscar winner admitted he “couldn’t imagine” that he’d one day not be “the cool dad,” however that’s exactly where he’s found himself.

He pointed to a recent dinner table conversation where relationships were brought up.

“My kids are talking at dinner and they’re talking about their friends and the drama and the relationships and I have some lived experience, I think, that’s worth sharing, some lessons,” Affleck said. “You know, these are the kind of things we give to our children.”

But when he tried to insert his thoughts into the story, his advice wasn’t as well received as he’d anticipated.

“I’ll say, ‘You know, well the thing about that relationship there…’ and the 17-year-old turns to me and goes, ‘Oh, like you’re the expert on relationships?’ ” Affleck quipped.

Affleck and his ex-wife Jennifer Lopez finalized their divorce in January 2025 after two years of marriage and a previously broken engagement. He was also previously married to Garner from 2005 until their divorce was finalized in 2018.

But the teenage barbs didn’t only apply to Affleck’s romantic life. He also recalled another outing with Seraphina in which the 17-year-old also took some shots.

“I was with the same kid, I went to the bookstore with them and you know how they put all the displays with the books up, you see the titles, we’re just browsing around some book by a French guy and it’s called I’m Sorry for Everything,” Affleck recalled. “My kid immediately just turns to me deadpan and goes, ‘Oh look, Dad, it’s your autobiography.’ ”

And while he took the hit, Affleck admitted, “I was kind of proud of them though I’m like, ‘My kid skirts the line, I like that.’ ”

[From People]

”Oh look, Dad, it’s your autobiography.” Fin for the win. I’ve always wondered how much modern-day celebrity children know about their parents’ history, and how it affects them. Most of us make mistakes, but 95% of us don’t end up with them becoming so prevalent that they kick off a portmanteau trend or have our worst moments become memes. Ben is handling it well by not making his issues a taboo topic. He and Jen have clearly kept an open line of communication with their kids, and it’s for the better.

That said, Ben getting flamed by his kids is sending me. My children playfully call me out on mistakes in ways I never would have to my own parents. It works for us, and they trust me and Mr. Rosie more when it comes to their personal lives. Ben’s teenagers may give him crap, but Ben has a good relationship with him and it shows.

Photos credit: Avalon.red and Cover Images