After their divorce was finalized in 2018, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have remained co-parents to their three children.
NEED TO KNOW
- From 2005 till 2018, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were wed.
- Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel are their three children together.
- Following their divorce, the ex-couple has continued to co-parent their children.
Although their Hollywood relationship ended in 2018, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck continue to collaborate on raising their children.
After ten years of marriage, the Yes Day actress and the Gone Girl star separated in 2015 and filed for divorce three years later. Violet Anne, Seraphina Rose, and Samuel are the three children they co-parent.
The former couple has made a concerted effort over the years to keep their children out of the spotlight, especially when it comes to social media and paparazzi pictures. However, the family has seen a number of public ups and downs over the years, despite their best efforts to protect their children’s privacy. Affleck told the Los Angeles Times in January 2022 that he was concerned about how his children would react to his public image. He explained that he didn’t give much thought to the media attention surrounding him until his kids started to notice it.
“I got to a place where [the public perception] was so different from who I am that I just stopped reading and stopped caring,” he stated. “But then, as my kids got older and started seeing the Internet themselves, that’s the difficult part.”
Garner and Affleck moved on to other relationships after their divorce. While Affleck was married to Jennifer Lopez for two years before she filed for divorce in August 2024, the 13 Going on 30 star has been intermittently seeing CEO John Miller since 2018. Additionally, they have both kept up their acting careers. Affleck starred in the Netflix film The Rip, which went up on January 16.
Here is everything Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have said about parenting, from their early thoughts on childrearing to how they are juggling life with teenagers.
Violet Anne Affleck, 20
On December 1, 2005, Garner and Affleck welcomed Violet, their first child. “Mother, father and baby are doing great,” the couple’s representative told PEOPLE at the time. Violet and her mother have the same middle name, Anne.
Given the enormous public attention around their relationship, Garner and Affleck made every effort to keep their kids out of the spotlight from the start of their parenting journey. According to Garner’s March 2021 cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Violet was already coping with the paparazzi when she was in kindergarten.
The actress remembers a moment when Violet opened out about the agonizing experience of being shot all the time. “We didn’t ask for this,” she remarked, standing up on a chair in a small velvet dress with her hair pulled back and her glasses on. She didn’t pronounce her Rs correctly. Because they are frightening, we do not want these cameras. It’s difficult to feel like a child when you’re being pursued, and the males are frightening because they knock each other over.
Garner stated that the continual attention “put so much anxiety in our little family,” which is one of the reasons she was motivated to assist in the passage of legislation making it illegal for paparazzi to take pictures of children without their consent.
“Anywhere that we went it was a total circus,” she stated in an October 2020 interview with PBS’ Tell Me More With Kelly Corrigan, adding that the paparazzi had a significant effect on her children’s childhoods, especially their firstborn. “My one daughter tried to play soccer and it was such a zoo for the families that they just said, ‘Can you please not,'” Garner recalled.
In 2022, Violet made a rare public appearance with Garner at a State banquet sponsored by President Joe Biden and first wife Dr. Jill Biden for her 17th birthday, despite the fact that she has still managed to avoid the spotlight for the most part. Violet went out once more in July 2023 for Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin’s White Party, this time accompanied by her father and Jennifer Lopez.
Violet argued for mask availability and free COVID-19 testing in front of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in July 2024.
In the autumn of 2024, Violet started going to Yale University. She has continued to promote public health since starting college, and in September 2025, she spoke before the U.N. about the effects of COVID.
Violet wrote an academic article about surviving the wildfires in Los Angeles earlier that year, which was published in Yale’s Global Health Review in May 2025.
Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck, 17
On January 6, 2009, Garner and Affleck welcomed their second child into the world. Seven days later, the couple’s representative told PEOPLE just that Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck was the name of their newborn.
Bradley Cooper, a friend of Garner and Affleck, told PEOPLE prior to Seraphina’s birth that he believed the couple would make “perfect” parents.
“She can basically do anything, and she was an excellent leader for a TV production I worked on with her. Cooper remarked of his Alias co-star Garner, “So she can certainly run a family.” “She will have no problems having two kids.”
Garner claimed in 2012 that Affleck was doing a fantastic job as a father. “He is obsessed with [tea parties]. During an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she stated, “He can do it without using any energy at all.” “They believe they’re playing a fantastic game with him even though he’s practically asleep. It’s a skill.
Affleck later claimed that having more kids forced him to reconsider how he approached his job and work schedule, even though he and Garner adapted to their new role as parents of two rather fast.
“My life has undergone significant shift. When he was working on The Tender Bar with his longtime friend George Clooney, who directed the movie, he told PEOPLE in 2021, “Once I had kids, it became very obvious to me that the priority was time with them.”
The director “George was spectacular in that way,” according to Affleck. “As a father himself, he would cut me early or allow me go out on the weekends. He truly recognized and valued the significance of seeing my children.
In June 2015, when Violet was nine years old, Seraphina was six, and Samuel was three, Garner and Affleck announced their ten-year marriage was ending.
The ex-couple got back together in 2018 to celebrate Seraphina’s ninth birthday. Source: “It was a small celebration,” PEOPLE said. “Ben was also present. Seraphina received numerous gifts and invited guests around for dessert.
Samuel Affleck, 13
Samuel, the third child of Garner and Affleck, was born on February 27, 2012. The actor wrote on Facebook, “We are happy to announce on February 27, Jennifer gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Samuel Garner Affleck,” to share the good news.
Growing up, Samuel appeared to have inherited his father’s passion for baseball, as he is a well-known and ardent supporter of the Boston Red Sox. Affleck revealed to DeGeneres in 2019 that he was Samuel’s Little League coach. He explained that he was so committed to his work that he had even pulled a few threads to attend every game. “It’s one of those things, you love it so much, it’s like the dad dream,” he added.
“I had a game last week and I was promoting [Triple Frontier], and I was going to Asia and I was like, ‘I have to come back a day early!'” remarked the actor. “And I thought, ‘What the hell?'” “My son’s Little League game?” I exclaimed. The coach is me. But Netflix, thank you. They did let me to leave.”
In the same year, Affleck recalled that once Samuel informed him that he wasn’t a fan of the New England Patriots, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Before they went to a Red Sox World Series game, the actor told Jimmy Kimmel how he attempted to tell Samuel about Boston sports history.
“I was telling my 6-year-old, my son in particular, you know, ‘We’re really excited because we’re from Boston and this is a big deal and the Red Sox’ and I’m giving him the whole history,” Affleck explained to the reporter.
And after hearing me out, he pauses and says, ‘Dad. Boston is where you’re from. “I’m from Los Angeles,” Affleck added. “I also experienced a complete existential crisis. “This is a catastrophe, I’m a bad father, I failed, and I’m at a loss for what to do.”
Affleck chose to “help him understand where he comes from” rather than condone his son’s L.A. fanaticism. “If not literally, then spiritually” by decorating Samuel’s room with Patriots memorabilia, such as a life-size poster of former quarterback Tom Brady on the wall, a chair fashioned like Brady’s head, and a massive football slide.
He made a joke, “My ex-wife thinks it’s creepy,”
Samuel recently made a rare public appearance at a Boston Celtics game in December 2022, sitting courtside with his father at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, suggesting that Affleck’s efforts had some impact on his son.
During NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, in February 2023, Samuel and the Gone Girl actress went to the Ruffles Celebrity Game. Before the game, the father-son pair got the privilege of introducing the teams. They also took a picture with Shaquille O’Neal while seated courtside.
Samuel now enjoys playing basketball, and Affleck is frequently seen in the stands supporting his son (or screaming at the officials).
“I’ve been embarrassing myself a lot this year. He acknowledged to PEOPLE, “I was at an 11-year-old basketball game, yelling about the inconsistent traveling calls against [them].” “And I just was like, ‘Get a hold of yourself.’ I mean, listen, you don’t want to be one of those parents.”
“It’s that thing, I think, in modern parenting, especially,” Affleck added. Our goal is to support our kids. We wish them well. We adore them dearly. However, the true difficulty is in moving aside to allow them to complete the task alone.
