Ben Affleck Responds to Backlash over Saying He Felt ‘Trapped’ in Marriage with Jennifer Garner

Actor Ben Affleck responded to the backlash he received over his Tuesday appearance on The Howard Stern Show — in which he reportedly said he would “still be drinking” if he didn’t divorce his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Garner, and that he felt “trapped” in their marriage — saying, “It’s the exact opposite of who I am.”

Affleck, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, said he initially thought the interview was great, until he saw people talking about it on Twitter.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I should do more honest, exploratory, self-evaluating things.’ And then I started seeing all this stuff come up on Twitter, and I was like, ‘What is this?'” the Justice League and The Last Dual star told Kimmel.

“And then I saw that one of these websites had done the clickbait thing,” the actor continued. “I looked on it, and they had literally taken the conversation that I had had for two hours and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I said.”

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Affleck told Kimmel he had gone on The Howard Stern Show and “said how much we respect each other, and cared about each other, and cared about our kids, and put them first.”

“And [the media] said that I had blamed my ex-wife for my alcoholism, and that I was trapped in this marriage — just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy,” the Gone Girl star said explained.

“Really, if it’s about my kids, I just got to just draw a line,” he added. “Let me be clear, like, that’s not true. I don’t believe that, it’s the exact opposite of who I am, what I believe. And I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”

“It hurts my feelings,” Affleck said of the media coverage.

The media coverage, however, had been in response to backlash Affleck’s comments garnered from fans, who took to social media to express their apparent frustration, and accused the actor of trying to “blame” his alcohol issue on his ex-wife, who was pictured driving him to rehab in 2018.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.