Now, sources around the actress are furious that Affleck aired his frustrations about their marriage to Howard Stern this week – and blamed their troubles for his alcoholism.“It’s disgusting,” one industry insider who knows both Affleck and Garner well said of the actor’s comments. “Jen has been the only one picking him up time and time again when he’s done horrible things – fallen off the wagon or worse.“Jen stood by him because she loves him. This is the mother of his children.”Another well-placed source told Page Six: “Anyone who knows addict behaviour knows how untrue those comments could be for any addict, but particularly Ben. It’s one of the first tenets of AA not to place blame for your disease.”Affleck, 49, told Stern that “I probably still would’ve been drinking” had he stayed with Garner and “part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped” in the marriage.“I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution,” he said on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show.To Garner’s friends, Affleck’s new comments echo the cringe-worthy speech he made when accepting a Best Picture Oscar for directing Argo in 2013.“I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases,” Affleck said at the podium. “It’s good. It is work, but it’s the best kind of work. And there’s no one I’d rather work with!”Garner, now 49, was then seen looking stony-faced as she joined her husband at the prestigious Vanity Fair bash at the Sunset Tower Hotel following the awards. Two years later, the couple announced their divorce after 10 years of marriage.Garner’s friends were quick to point out that she has never spoken negatively about Affleck.Discussing her divorce, Garner famously told Vanity Fair in 2016: “He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous. “He’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.”Affleck and Garner met and fell in love on the set of 2003’s Daredevil and went on to have three children: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9.Mutual friends have stressed that Garner has been the anchor in Affleck’s life. She has quietly vetted his girlfriends and is said to approve of his reunion with Lopez.Amid a social media backlash this week, Affleck told friend Jimmy Kimmel that it “hurts” his feelings that his comments were being used to make him look like the “worst, most insensitive, stupid, awful guy”.,A source who knows Affleck told Page Six in his defence: “I do think that the quotes have been taken out of context, if you actually listen to the interview he says everything in a different context.”However, the industry insider said, “He didn’t need to act like he was talking to his shrink.”Garner’s friends point out that she is doing better than ever without Affleck. Although she has not confirmed that she is engaged to CaliBurger CEO John Miller, she was spotted wearing a sparkling ring in November. The two, who briefly broke up in 2020, have been together since shortly after her divorce.She has 11.7 million Instagram followers who tune in for her homespun cooking shows. And the actress will soon star in the Apple TV+ production of the hit book The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave.As for Affleck, those who know him report that “clean and healthy” Lopez is “a good influence.” But, as Page Six reported, she is also “pissed” at her boyfriend for saying what he did about Garner.This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission
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