Jennifer Garner looks back on the years around her 2015 separation from Ben Affleck, describing the “upheaval” that affected both her family rhythm and how much she worked—before leaning back into acting now that her kids are older.
Jennifer Garner didn’t soften the hardest parts—she just put them in context.
In an interview published with InStyle on Wednesday. the Alias alum reflected on what life looked like as a working mother during some of the most disruptive chapters of her family’s story. She married Ben Affleck in 2005 and welcomed three kids together: Violet, Fin, and Samuel. When she and Affleck separated in 2015 after 10 years of marriage, Garner said the shift landed like a jolt.
“First of all, when you’re in a performance kind of role, you give up a year/year-and-a-half of performance while you are pregnant, having a baby, recovering. When my kids were little, I worked so little, and then we had such an upheaval in our family, that I really hardly worked for a long time.”
Garner’s acting didn’t disappear completely during those years—she still appeared in projects including The Kingdom, Juno, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Valentine’s Day, Dallas Buyers Club, to name a few. But she described how motherhood shaped her availability in a way that was difficult to manage.
Her kids, she said, made it harder to keep up with the everyday demands of being involved in their lives. “They have been ‘such bricks’ about missing volleyball games and other mom activities. ” including being a Lunch Mom at school. because her schedule sometimes pulled her away when they were younger.
Now. with Violet. Fin. and Samuel older and more independent. Garner says she can take on more acting than she could before—and she’s grateful for it. “To have this year and a half where I just indulged [in acting is a gift]. because this job is very selfish. It’s all about your schedule. It’s not about what the kids have going on at school. It’s not about pickups and drop-offs and making it home for dinner.”.
The compromises have changed, too. These days, Garner says she only accepts jobs in Los Angeles so she can stay close to her family. The only exception, she said, was her new Peacock show, The Five Star Weekend, which she filmed in Nantucket for three weeks.
“When I work, I don’t apologize to my kids for it. I do thank them for being so sweet about it. But that’s part of life. Working hard is part of life, and messing up is part of life. Tripping and falling — there’s room for all of it.”
Even with all the juggling she’s described—pregnancy downtime. recovery. schedule clashes. and the emotional disruption she tied to the family upheaval—Garner ultimately sounded certain about where she stands now. She said she comes to acting “from a place of joy,” adding: “I’m not tortured. It’s not filling a hole. I just really love to do it. And I love to be around people who love to do it.”.
Jennifer Garner Ben Affleck InStyle Alias divorce family upheaval Violet Affleck Fin Affleck Samuel Affleck working mother The Five Star Weekend Peacock Nantucket
So she barely worked after the divorce? Must be nice lol
I mean “upheaval” is a divorce word, everyone knows that. But she said she worked so little when the kids were little, like yeah… that’s just parenting. Also I swear I saw Affleck in 2015 movies nonstop so idk
Wait are they saying she stopped acting because she was pregnant like for 1-1.5 years? That seems obvious but she made it sound like she was forced to quit. And the “bricks” line, I’m like… is that a slang thing? I thought it meant angry or something
This is wild cause the headline makes it sound like it was all drama between them but she’s talking about schedules and volleyball games… which honestly is more relatable than people think. Still, I’ll never understand how someone can be a lunch mom and also be in movies, unless they got a whole army of assistants. Also “upheaval” affected her family rhythm… okay but did it affect Ben too? Cause he was out and about