These are photos of a beefy looking Ben Affleck out with his youngest daughter, Seraphina, 5, on Saturday. Ben took Seraphina shopping at Barney’s with him. Barney’s has a children’s section, so Seraphina may have enjoyed her day out with dad. (I know my son hates shopping, but my friend’s daughter is around Seraphina’s age and she loves to shop. I’m sure it just depends on the kid.) Look at how Seraphina is playing with her dad’s hair, so cute.
These photos are likely planned somewhat. I believe that the Garner-Afflecks have paparazzi who follow them daily, but we rarely see Ben out with his kids, so he knows how to avoid them. (He’s been in Detroit filming, but still he does avoid the paps when he’s in LA.) Like Ben’s many appearances during Oscar season last year, this outing may have a purpose. It may be meant to distract us from the stories of Ben’s gambling addiction and the issues that’s said to be causing in his marriage. The narrative goes something like, “look, family man Ben is fine! He’s superfit and ready for Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” He does look really good here, I have to admit. As for whether Ben’s gambling is affecting his relationship, Radar has a source who claims that Jennifer Garner is fine with her husband spending his time at casinos because at least he’s “focused” and she knows where he is:
“Jen is happy with Ben gambling,” a source told Radar, “because she feels like it keeps him focused.”
Reports have run rampant for years that the A-list Hollywood couple have been headed for divorce because of a variety of issues.
But the 42-year-old mother-of-three — daughters Violet, 6, and Serafina, 3, and son Samuel, 2 — has told those close to her that Affleck’s poker vice “helps with their” relationship, a source told Radar.
And it helps divert the Armageddon star from straying from Garner — which would likely spell armageddon for the nine-year marriage.
“The alternatives are working, gambling, and spending time with family or out on the town partying,” said the source. “Gambling replaces that last option … he’s either working or gambling.”
Since the 41-year-old has been filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in Detroit, Michigan, “his free time is non-existent,” the insider added.
In fact, Garner is the one with the upper hand as Ben plays his hand in casinos all over Motor City.
“Now she has that reign on him,” continued the source, “and gambling keeps him in check.”
This could be made up, but it does sound like Jennifer. That seems to be how she deals with issues in her marriage, she tells herself everything is fine. This is pretty much what I’ve said, that at least she knows what he’s doing somewhat. That doesn’t mean it’s not a huge issue though or that Ben isn’t a gambling addict. It doesn’t even mean that he’s not cheating or drinking heavily, although we haven’t heard much on that front.
I think Ben is conflicted about starring in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice and that he’s trying to drown out his second thoughts with gambling. With everything Ben has said about wanting to move away from his blockbuster film past, this career move doesn’t make sense. He just got the Oscar for Argo last year, and he said multiple times during the press tour that he wanted to move away from acting because he was sick of the spotlight. I think that he hates that he took this role for the money. There’s still a long way to go to see if this movie is going to be successful and if his performance will be well received. You know he cares about that.
Photo credit: FameFlynet
She is sooooo cute!
Yes and you can clearly see she adores her Daddy!
Utterly adorable.
I know this is off topic, but do we know if his hair is real? I’ve never seen it look so wiglet-esque.
I see what you mean. I think it’s real though only because of the gray roots.
@Esmom-I always thought it was fake-it never seems to move and reminds me of pitch on a green. His daughter is lovely, though. As for him not drinking/possible drugs-he looked really messed up at a couple of awards shows during the Argo jaunt. I hope he can get a handle on his issues.
I thought he got plugs a few years back? Would explain the roots.
Adorable! She looks a lot like Garner.
Batman does seen out of step with his current career trajectory, but I feel like he needs to accept what he chose and commit to it instead of gambling away his uncertainties.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of her smiling like that. She certainly looks like her mother.
If this is true, then it’s sad. What twisted logic. Which leads me to believe it’s BS.
The wife of a man who has a gambling problem can’t be “happy” knowing he is gambling again.
I suppose this is the pr version of the story, the one who has to keep the “happy family” image intact.
Thus you see the Dimples Parade deployment! , Looking forward to all these new Affleck Babies Pap pics we are gonna get in the next few weeks to redirect the conversation
Hello arms!
He looks goooood.
He does look good. I’m a little ashamed at how good I think he looks.
Hopefully he’ll do batman voice and it will kill it for once and all.
Yeah he does.
He also doesn’t look near as grumpy as usual, which leads me to believe, as the article states…all of it was staged. Celebrities and their fakery.
I hate that I find him hot in these pictures. He’s beyond not my type, but I do like me some beefy arms.
whatever their problems, i think they do have a good relationship with their children, who look happy and comfortable when seen around.
Lol. Oooooooohkaay! I believe that one. I am sure she just loves his gambling.
They have super cute kids.
On one level, story reeks of the “choose your poison” dynamic- she’d prefer him gambling than drinking,etc. It’s not like he’s betting the grocery money. However, that’s a slippery slope. And agree- that little girl clearly adores her daddy.
That’s kinda how I took it. I’m not saying I haven’t found elements of their marriage skeevy in the past, but sometimes you have to accept that someone will only change if they want to and they won’t want to if you nag them about it. I’m probably saying this wrong – but they have money and if a gambling addiction hurts their family less than a boozing, womanizing addiction, who are we to judge?
Indeed I don’t get why he took that role, he was doing fine after Argo and he could have easily produced some movie or direct something again, or well find a no popcorn movie to star in.
I’m sure the money is what swayed him to take on Batman.
But also, it will boost his profile to be in a big film and if actors like Bale can jump from franchises to smaller, serious films, then there’s no real stigma attached. Saying that, BvS seems to be awful.
It seems like a terrible decision, throwing away the hard earned respect of the Academy to don a cape and cowl, there is no way the film will be critically acclaimed and I have serious doubts about his chin’s ability to pull this off.
Except Jen, that he can’t gamble, because he’s a known card counter and is publicly being thrown out of casinos everywhere. If your choices are a husband who gambles all the time vs a husband who screws around on you, that’s not much of a choice.
Maybe introduce him to golf.
He’s been banned from playing because he counts cards playing blackjack. But he’s been seen in poker rooms. As an addict, he’ll find a way.
Golf is an excellent idea, TOG, she can play the game right along with him and it’s totally addictive.
Why are they writing it like there’s only two choices- spend free time gambling or cheating? Stupid.
I hope he keeps it together. His kids need him and his career has been doing so well.
Because if he has an addiction to risk-taking that he’s not willing to address, those are the two choices, and she’s picking the one she can live with.
I can tell he gained muscle, but his face looks fat. He just looks like a meat head to me.
Some guys just don’t look good all bulked up, and I think he’s one of them. Bloated face might indicate that he’s using steroids to bulk up, too.
Bloated face is likely the alcohol. Nothing makes you jowly faster than booze. Now pass me another Pinot Noir.
I also think that those are not his sunglasses. They are too small for his face (or his face as it is now). they have a bit of a Porn Star vibe to them.
Ben uses the paps when he wants positive PR. Dimple brigade will always bring out the smiles. But Ben has several stories to refute. They say he’s out of shape and his appearance at the casinos is disheveled. Well bang! Look at the guns. Look how broad my chest is. Ignore the fact I’m wearing a too small shirt that bunches under my armpits. Those tabs say I’m in the casino and don’t spend time with my family. Bam! Here I am in LA, enjoying a shopping trip to Barney’s with my kid.
Oh, Ben…this will help a little bit, but social media isn’t the tabs and they all say the sane thing: gambling heavily, smoking, drinking, looking like hell.
At some point, Jen is going to stop enabling him, but that won’t be any time soon.
“This could be made up, ” DUH it’s RADAR. Pathetic the way people believe Star, OK, Radar, totally unbelievable and fan-fictionalized publications about who they want to believe crap about. Some gossips make fun of PEOPLE but at least they don’t publish unless they have credible sources. As for him using the papz to refute negative tab stories, tell me why is that so wrong? I would do the same thing. Use those creeps (and publishing gossip sites) to fight back. Not anything different than your sainted Jolie-Pitts do all the time.
Re: the Affleck’s using paparazzi. People criticize them for it not because the tactic itself is wrong, but because the GarnerAfflecks have spent years complaining out one side of their mouths how intrusive the paparazzi are, and then out the other side use the paparazzi to help cultivate an image. On one hand Garner has supported legislation trying to regulate pap photos of children, but on the other Affleck trots out his own kids to help his image. THAT’S why people criticize.
“he’s either working or gambling” — that sounds horrible, if there’s even half of truth to this, wtf is she thinking, if she’s thinking at all. clearly they’re all in deep-shit denial. that’s what they’re trying to focus on – heavy denial.
I met Jennifer last week in Santa Monica. First of all she is so beautiful, down to earth, lovely, with fabulous Chanel shoes… I have a total girl crush now.
Anyway she was taking about how the paparazzi law has changed her life, basically almost all paparazzi have gone away now… She mentioned Ben’s counting cards activities, jokingly, referring to him as a very smart guy. She seems like a wonderful person, a lovely wife and devoted mother. Sometimes you do what you have to do for your marriage and I have never seen anybody more fractious about it..
Love her…
I’m curious were you interviewing her? Or just decided to be bold abd ask her questions about the gossip surrounding her and Ben?
Also, I don’t think you used the word “fractious” properly, fractious means unruly or angered, so which is it? If you really talked to her was she angry or did she seem “okay” ?
Hi Jane,
No I am not her publicist at all… and the word fractious was used by mistake, I was writing from my phone and it must have been autocorrect, I think I meant anxious.. but I cannot remember anymore.
No she was giving a speech on paparazzi at a club I am a member of and after wards we gathered in small groups for chats, and I found her incredibly down to heart… of course that is her public face, and nobody knows really what goes on in the house, but she seemed incredibly lovely, that’s all..
Now that I re read my comment, I really cannot remember what I meant in the last sentence… so sorry please do not read anything in it… I was kind of distracted..
Thanks Jen’s publicist!!!
She had no problem with the paps last year. They even know where she will be before she even gets there!
Give me a break, Bridget. Interestingly, all the pics I’ve seen of the above day when he went out shopping (a normal thing to do btw, what-he’s not supposed to shop because he’s famous?) these are the ONLY ones I’ve seen with his kid. All the other ones are published WITHOUT the kids, which is what they were complaining about. Both of them said they understood getting papped was part of their job and they were not complaining about THAT, but about the fact that their kids did not sign up for it and that’s what they complained about. They were not talking out of one side of their mouth AT ALL. Now that Garner has put in the effort to change the law, most publications have followed suit and do not publish children’s pictures. That’s why she said she was thrilled. The Afflecks have never published their children’s pictures on the cover of People which is why other celebs would come off as ridiculous if they had ever complained about it.
Stop making sense, Lena! Stick to the narrative!
Yeah, @Lena, @Kitten,
I’ve never really believed that the Garner-Afflecks called the paps, even during Oscar season, because there is a lot more than ‘Daddy needs to look like a family man so he can win that golden naked man’, going on. First off, they live in LA, and have a pretty fixed schedule. Either they stop letting their kids have a life, or they tolerate the paps. End of. It’d be one thing if they lived like, 50 miles away, or in a diff. state. But they don’t.
Second, during Oscar season aka the time that Ben is always pap’d with the kids–we have no clue how often HE actually takes them places. It could be that he hates grocery shopping, so Jennifer takes them. It could be that he doesn’t like taking the kids out as much as she does (my mom didn’t ever take us to the grocery store when we were kids, ever). All we know is that the pictures of Ben (and his kids) are worth a lot more, and there is a higher interest during Oscar season.
And to be honest, the only celebs that I think NEED to CALL the paps, are the ones who are Clist or lower. Anything else, is just a negotiation of when and where. Which I don’t find anything wrong with that–as long as you don’t complain about it.
@Lena, you asked why people criticised and I answered. I’ve never understood why people think its impossible that the Affleck family could possibly work with photographers, that they’re supposedly above it. Ben Affleck, who hasn’t been seen in photos with his kids for a nice long while, suddenly in the middle of TERRIBLE PR happens to run into a photographer while he’s playing happy family. In the same way that he happened to be photographed as Mr Mom during his Oscar campaign even though he could have easily gone out the back entrance to the kids’ school. All of a sudden we’re thinking the guy that hangs out in casinos and the like is above till I off photographers where he and his kids will be so he’ll look a little better? Really?
@VC: its definitely not just C List and under. The marketing of entertainment has changed with the advent of the internet and social media – it’s not just about the movie itself, but the stars themselves are the product. “Candid” shots are an opportunity for a celebrity to 1) stay within the public’s consciousness, and 2) subtley craft their public image. This pic of Affleck is a GREAT example for a couple of reasons. 1) It’s a family guy photo when a lot of icky stories about his gambling is coming out (and remember, his career was saved by re-branding himself as a contrite family man, changed by the love of a good woman and their beautiful children), and 2) we all know the internet hates that he was cast as Bat man, but this is an opportunity to show that he’s fit, bulked up, and supersuit ready – a great counterbalance to those sad photos of him looking like he could barely stand up after filling his car with gas. The unveiling of the physique is practically a tradition when it comes to comic book movies nowadays, too.
We are talking about an industry that brings in billions of dollars, which has several satellite industries around it just to support it. A celebrity’s image is worth an awful lot of money, and it’s naive to think that celebrities (especially those in the upper echelons) would be so passive about it. Do you think Ben Affleck would ever have won that Oscar without his whole “contrite, worked his way back to the top” schtick? Extremely doubtful.
Seraphina is so adorable!
Aren’t the kids ages off by a couple years? Makes you wonder how reliable the source is.
Yes, they are. I’ll always remember the Affleck kids’ ages, because Violet was born around the same time as my nephew (who just turned 8), Seraphina was born near the same time as my son (5-1/2), and Samuel was born around the same time as my daughter (2-1/2).
I have a relative who is a camera man with one of the big studios, he says they have a new testosterone drug that everyone is using to bulk up. The case in point we were discussing was Bradley Cooper and his remarkable change. I suspect Ben is using that also.
Ugh. Sad to think that people would rather take the risk of growing cancer calls a few years down the road than just working with what they’ve got.
“I think that he hates that he took this role for the money.”
No. He took this role for the opportunity to fulfil every little boy’s dream (esp. a hammy would-be actor child) of playing a superhero. He’s never been offered it before except for the lame one that even he made fun of. So he’s conflicted he got the role he wants now but NO ONE with any cred thinks he’s good for it.
Every dejected pic of him brings the voice of Matt Damon saying, “Remember, a divorce would RUIN your career. You would be the Bad Guy vs. Little Bo Peep. It would RUIN you. Just rule it out.”
I can just hear him.
I’m sorry but, in this day and age, nobody cares if an actor divorces. If he was caught in some horrible scandal that caused the divorce that would have an impact on his career, otherwise fans don’t care. They want to watch entertaining movies not think about reality.
What a dilf!!! Dad I’d like to fu$K.
Okay, this might be an unpopular opinion here but here goes it, majority seem to assume that Jen would never divorce Ben, that it is Ben that so badly wants to divorce her and is “acting out” to get out. Remember Jen has filed for divorce before and before she did that she sought therapy to ultimately come to the decision to end her marriage to Foley. She has been going to a psychiatrist/therapist again, I think she knows what she needs to do, she is seeking help from an outside source so that she will be mentally ready to make that change. I believe Jen would not raise her children in an environment that was not healthy for them, where their parents are constantly fighting or are never together, one parent is drinking, gambling, there is cheating, trust issues, etc. She has daughters, what kind of example would she be to them if she stayed? The whole world knows their crap thanks to social media, her kids will know it too, all they have to do is google their parents. Oh and btw, when was the last time you saw Ben and Jen photographed together? You have to go back a good two almost three months back, coincidence? I don’t think so.
Jane, how do you know all this re: the shrink sessions? Just curious.
Candice
Paparazzi pics of her coming in and out of her Doctor’s office, easy to find on the internet really, no secret, also she has said in interviews that she is a big believer in therapy, especially after her first divorce. I share her belief in seeking professional help both before and after a divorce, sometimes you need an outside person reaffirming what you already know. If you can confidently say that you have exhausted every option then you can be at peace with making that hard decision. I think she’s working towards that, just a hunch.
One more thing Candice just so it’s clear that I don’t have actual “inside information”, I can sort of relate to Jen and what she might be going through, because I went to what might be the same kind of therapy, holistic, but let me explain that I had “head issues”, I was in deep denial, it was bad, before I finally filed for divorce. I read an interview of Jen’s years ago where she talked about therapy and I have become a fan of hers because of that. I think the only movie I have seen of hers is 13 going on 30 and Juno.
Thanks Jane! Except for the Brentwood Country Mart, I’ve never paid too much attention to the actual location of the pap shots — unless it’s blatantly obvious like a park or a zoo! In cases where the celeb is exiting an office building, sometimes the gossip web site that publishes the photo makes an assumption that it was a dentist appointment, lawyer appointment, etc. when there are a number of different possibilities.
I love Ben. Someone has to on here.
I wouldn’t have clicked on this if I knew there were pictures of kids in there. It always creeps me out. Why do we all know so much about celebritites’ kids? It makes me uncomfortable.
“Bennifer 1, Act 2” – Just out today at Time.com. SO. GOOD.
“They say living well is the best revenge. So who bested whom: J. Lo or Ben Affleck?” That article is spot on. I hope Affleck doesn’t see it his ego wouldn’t be able to take it, it would result in another night of gambling, drinking, smoking….
Probably not a popular opinion, but I am not certain he will bomb as Batman. I remember George Clooney’s portrayal . . .