Jennifer Garner talks managing 'separate households' with Ben Affleck

Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY Wed, February 25, 2026 at 5:35 PM UTC

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Jennifer Garner is offering a rare inside look at how she and ex-husband Ben Affleck manage co-parenting.

In a new interview with Bustle, the "13 Going on 30" actress opened up about raising a family in "two separate households." Affleck and Garner, both 53, share three children: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13. The pair wed in 2005 and split after over a decade of marriage in 2018.

"I become mom and dad; he becomes dad and mom," she told the outlet in the interview published Tuesday. "You kind of can't help it, right? Because you don't have the benefit of both sides of the yin and yang being in the same house. And so you have to have a bit of both in the way that you parent."

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck arrive at the Oscars on Feb. 24, 2013, in Hollywood, California.

"There's a little bit of loss in that," she told the outlet, "but there's also something gained in that." In another interview earlier this year, Garner, who has since begun dating businessman John C. Miller, said she struggled with the gossip that dominated tabloids in the wake of her split with Affleck.

"You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was out there. But what was out there was not what was hard," the actress told Marie Claire UK in January.

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"The Last Thing He Told Me" star went on to say: "The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard."

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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon got their big break with "Good Will Hunting," which won them a best original screenplay Oscar in 1998.

Affleck has since married and divorced Jennifer Lopez. He and Lopez originally met while working on the romantic comedy "Gigli" and got engaged in 2002, but they called off the wedding in 2003, citing excessive media attention. They both went on to tie the knot with and split from other people, with Lopez marrying Marc Anthony in 2004 and Affleck marrying Garner. Lopez also got engaged to Alex Rodriguez in 2019, but they did not marry.

Almost two decades after their split, Affleck and Lopez rekindled their relationship in 2021 and tied the knot the following year. But in 2024, the "Jenny from the Block" singer filed for divorce from Affleck in Los Angeles Superior Court on their second wedding anniversary. Their divorce was finalized in January 2025.

Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jennifer Garner talks 'loss' of co-parenting with Ben Affleck

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