Ben Affleck is so concerned about his public image that he used his influence to have the genealogy show, Finding Your Roots, edit out the fact that he had a slave-owning ancestor. You may remember that, but it’s worth revisiting in light of the fact that Affleck was revealed as a groper in the wake of the Weinstein story. We saw two videos of Affleck sexually harassing women on camera during interviews in the early 2000s and one other woman came forward to say that he grabbed her butt and put his finger in the crack at a party in 2014 when he was passing by her. Another woman chimed in to say that she was at the same party and that several of her friends were similarly assaulted by Affleck. Affleck has apologized for one of the two video incidents, the one involving Hilarie Burton. The other interviewer has defended Affleck’s behavior and claimed it was “a game.” He has not yet explained why he went around groping random women at a party. Maybe he assumes we’ll forget about that if he carries on like nothing has changed. He also hasn’t addressed Rose McGowan’s claims that he was well aware that Harvey Weinstein assaulted her years ago when it happened.
It’s sort-of business as usual for Affleck. He was seen taking his kids out for ice cream with his estranged wife, Jennifer Garner, last week. These photos are of him outside church with Garner and the children on Sunday, dressed in a button down shirt, with dress pants and oxfords. Remember what he usually wears to church? He dresses up a t-shirt by throwing on a suit jacket over it or he wears a button down checked shirt and he usually wears sneakers. This is a deliberate image control move by Affleck and it’s transparent. We see you. I would say at least he’s trying but is he really? Again, he hasn’t addressed the claims that he went around sexually grabbing women at a Golden Globes party in 2014. I’m surprised that we haven’t heard from more women, because when do men suddenly decide to violate women for one night and then stop? Have his people been frantically making calls?
For her part Garner wore actual high heels, I don’t remember seeing her in anything but kitten heels for casual wear, and these look very good on her. She usually wears expensive and comfortable-looking sandals. Maybe she’s feeling bolder now that she’s training to be an action star. Maybe she’s relieved that the public is finally getting a glimpse of the person she’s been dealing with for over a decade.
Affleck may be lying low and waiting this out, seeing how many more women come forward to confirm that he sexually assaults women. It’s interesting that this weekend he chose to stay with his family and go to church instead of visiting his former mistress now-girlfriend in New York. Surely that’s a coincidence though because he just saw her last weekend. I bet we’ll be seeing less of her overall.
photos credit: WENN and Backgrid
Those shoes are super cute.
Anyways Jen stop participating in these pap walks. Just stop it. Its not necessary and now you look like you’re complicit in this PR push to play “happy family” even though he’s not sober and he assaults women.
I have no words for ben anymore. I hope his movies continue to tank
He shows up where she and the kids are expected to be. There were no pics of them together and they arrived and left separately. This was his pap walk not hers. He clearly thinks we are that gullible and will forget what he doesn’t want us to remember if he reminds us what a wonderful family man he is. Gross.
As to the ice cream scene there was a video that showed clearly that was orchestrated by him and she was pissed about it.
@learning- agreed that this is Ben’s doing. She looked mortified and angry at the ice cream shop because she didn’t know he called the paps imo. And as far as church, Jen has been taking the kids every Sunday since they separated (maybe even before? Idk about that but def since the separation) and it seems like Ben’s jumping on it to try and distract from the fact that he’s an alcoholic harasser of women.
I just watched that video and it’s clearly Ben’s doing, he’s trying so hard to look like the loving father and gives the girls a weird hug when their backs are turned, he’s working the camera! You even hear one of the cameramen ask another if he got that shot. Ben then goes back to his phone and the older daughter is grabbing at his arm trying to get his attention, ridiculous attempt at manipulating people. Also, Jennifer is obviously upset at their presence and makes that clear. I felt creepy even watching that video, poor kids don’t deserve to be photographed, theirs or the other innocent kids at the ice cream shop.
Then Jen needs to start setting her boundaries. She can do this and I hope she will.
Nicole, he is their father. He has legal rights, too. How does she legally keep him from exposing the kids like this?
She can’t control his time but she can control hers. Additionally, she absolutely can limit what he does with the kids now that he’s not actively sober. Such as not driving them places. This is done all the time
At the ice cream incident, he had a driver. He’s been with a sober coach and attending (per paps) daily outpatient visits. So, if he is sober, he likely gets more access to the kids. Thus, allowing him to show up with them in places where he will get the pap shots he is seeking.
That will be out of her control.
Jen looks great.
…But she can be such a doormat sometimes for Ben. This looks like PR for him.
‘Anyways Jen stop participating in these pap walks. Just stop it. Its not necessary and now you look like you’re complicit in this PR push to play “happy family” even though he’s not sober and he assaults women.’
thank you, it’s really nagl. especially because it’s SO blatant he’s doing it to purge his image, he’s like look i might touch women without their consent, but hey i go to church?? UGH.
This is all on Ben. He is the clear a-hole in this scenario. She isn’t in anyway complicit. If she makes some effort to defend him publicly then thats something different. If you actually watch the paparazzi video at the cafe she clearly is pissed off that the paps are there and barely interacts with him. I honestly have come to have some sympathy. She clearly had blinders on and let herself be manipulated by this jerk. I am not saying she isn’t hypocritical and doesn’t have deep seeded issues that she stayed in that marriage but i tend to think she let herself be manipulated.
i wrote it on another comment, but if she’s not agreeing to pap walks she most certainly did not tell him about it, since they keep happening. it’s obvious that while she might not be delighted by this, she’s still going along because this is what he wants.
on one side i feel for her, otoh she’s addicted to pap walks as much as he is so it’s hard to feel much sympathy when she’s dragging her kids in this mess. i mean, she fought so much to have that paparazzi law passed, and yet her children are always in the limelight. halle berry also campaigned for it, and since then we never ever saw her children again, so it’s not like it can’t be done.
Yes absolutely about the law. I am just getting the feeling in this case he called and made sure that he was seen with his kids. and photographed. I don’t think she’s blameless just that this was all his doing and to cover his butt.
oh i agree with that, it’s him trying to look good and calling the paps. but she’s still going along, and she really doesn’t have to.
@ell, did you see the video footage of the ice cream shop? That was all him – she arrived later, clearly angry, asked the paps to leave so her kids could have some peace, walks in and when Affleck approaches her and tries to have a PDA moment she sidesteps him and just walks to her kids. Then she points to the door and glares at him, and he walks over and shuts it.
She may have pap walked her ass off in the past, but at this point Garner is not playing. Was good to see.
I agree he’s an @$$. At some point she needs to stop telling him where they are. How else does he know where to call the paps to? Its not just this its also the fact that he’s not sober. She can put her foot down here and she hasn’t.
Maybe this event will change her mind
@Nicole. He knows they go to church every Sunday, what time and where. She doesn’t have to tell him. As for Friday’s school event, he’s a parent so he gets notices about meetings in the same way I get emails and phone calls about happenings at my grandson’s school because I am listed on his record as a contact. The ice cream shop was totally Ben’s setup. Like I and many others said, watch the video.
Sigh. It’s getting harder to be open-minded about JG.
Church now? *side-eye*
I think I’m gonna chant “Ben Affleck went to church,” whenever my work day needs comic relief.
Well – she does seem to bring the kids every Sunday, right?
To be fair, Jen has been going to church her whole life so have her children.
I think she has been taking the family to church for a couple of years now, since it was announced that they were separated. He just shows up looking hungover when he pleases.
And on a superficial note, how can you wear a dress pants, a button down and oxford shoes as still look a mess. Tuck in your damn shirt, at least.
Thanks guys. Didn’t know that they attend every Sunday. Still confused as to why she would let Ben continue to use her for image rehab though.
ETA: just watched the ice cream video and it doesn’t seem like she wants shit to do with him. He’s so gross hugging his girls for the paps. How does he not get that this just makes him look worse?? JFC just go hide away, Ben, like forever.
How can she stop him?
She could quit taking the kids to church on Sunday, but they seem to enjoy that and how long would she have to stop? How would she explain that to the kids – we can’t go there because your dad might show up?
He is their father and so I’m pretty sure he has the right to take them places, with or without her consent.
Yes I think she’s in a shitty position.
How can she stop him? Well for one she could say stay your butt home, you are an embarrassment.
Or he could go in to church through a side door? You know not in front of the cameras?
They know exactly what they are doing, she is complacent in using her family for exposure and to spin the happy family image.
She would run back to him in a second if he wanted to.
I thought she started publicly going to church circa “Miracles from Heaven,” which was also around the time she needed to revamp her image in light of dumping a dirt bag husband. Whatever, I genuinely think she wants to be that kind of mom so more power to her.
But the comic value of the suggestion that Ben Affleck goes to church . . . could he be any more pathetic and transparent? She shouldn’t have to hide from him.
She IS in a shitty position. She has been taking the kids to church forever. On set, she also takes them to church wherever they are. I know that because a friend (who used to post here) was a PA on a movie she was doing and JG asked her if she could find a local church she could attend. I’m indifferent towards her, for the most part, but I don’t like how people are jumping in yelling about her being complicit in her estranged husband’s actions.
Bettyrose is right, she only started taking the kids to church after she filmed that Christian movie. She and Ben were ‘separated’ by then so he didn’t always tag along. Since he’s been with Lindsay he has barely gone and when he has, he has looked like shit. This past Sunday was the nicest he’s ever dressed for a service — hmmmm wonder why??
Jen has been going to church for decades. Kids not so long.
She can’t avoid him altogether. He can ask the kids where they are going and tell them not to say anything. Or he just shows up because he knows her schedule.
What is sad from the ice cream shop video Seraphina is obviously upset and wanted to go home with her mother. I noticed the way she clung to her.
I also noticed Violet said something to him that made him a little irritated.
I noticed after the hug they moved a good distance away from him.
Where is the little boy?
Jen is from West Virginia, grew up going to church, all her children were baptized at that church in W V, so she did not just start going to church in LA, so it’s easy for the Paps to find her, unless she is popping up at the pumpkin patch.
Yup Peggy I was just coming on here to say that. First Presbyterian on the East Side of Charleston. She is a confirmed lifelong church girl, even brought Ben to that church (waaaaay back in the day lol)
@ Kitten, I think she attends church most Sundays. She’s been doing that for a while now. I don’t think she’s responsible if Affleck the “Asshat” shows up as a PR move.
I really wonder what Jennifer Garner thinks of all of this.
She knew she married an addict and proceeded to have three children with him.
For someone seemingly so “together”, I side eye her as much as him.
Now her children suffer because Daddy is a fuck boi who can’t be alone.
she probably wasn’t very together to begin with, and the way the both of them use those children with pap walks is mortifying. like, i don’t blame her for getting in a bad relationship, it happens. but step away from it now, he’s being accused of sexual harassment, she literally has no business complying to his pap walks.
She’s not complying. She was clearly pissed about the ice cream pickup. They were not together at the school event, arrived separately and departed separately, no photos near each other. She took the kids to church as she does every Sunday and he showed up, on his own, dressed better than usual, grinning at the paps, no photos near each other. How does that translate to complying? As I said, does she need to get a restraining order to keep him away from her and the children?
i find it very hard to believe that once they’re alone, she doesn’t let him know she doesn’t want the paps around and that he’s on his own to clean up his image.
@ell, when has he EVER shown that he takes her feelings and wishes into consideration?
Good point @learning.
Why do all the Ben Affleck posts here focus on JG so much, when he is the shady one? Sexual harassment doesn’t really equate with engaging in a pap stroll (IF she does) surely? Just don’t get it at all…
How pathetically obvious.
Ben always runs back to Jen & his children when he needs to re vamp his image.
I wonder how Lindsay feels about him allegedly groping that former SNL’s wife. Didn’t some source say something like SNL is one big family?
I think this is the first weekend he ditched his NYC trip to have drinks with Shookus with damage control church visit and hugging his daughters to the cameras. He’s such an idiot, but I ‘m also shocked to learn that 80% of general public doesn’t follow internet outrage and end up believing whatever PR ops the celebrities do. Many People Magazine readers, just to frame the type, will see these pictures and will say: Awww…he loves his daughters, look how he hugs them! And he goes to church dressed properly! He cant be that bad!”
Affleck is not going to address the groping. He thinks it will all blow over. If an interviewer presses him on the issue he will probably either end the interview or have a weak statement.
Do you think he can even remember all the woman he touched?
yeah, i wouldn’t be surprised at all if hearing these women complaining about him touching them was completely new to him because of his drinking. truly disgusting, if he thinks this is going away, he better think again.
Probably not. He is likely hoping that no additional women come forward.
He’s probably been having his lawyers contact and threaten women. I’m sure Harvey taught him well. If we start seeing negative stories running about any women involved, we’ll know why.
I agree he’s going to try to let it blow over. When he made his “sad and angry” statement about Harvey, it turned into a slew of accusations (with video proof!) about him too, so he’s going to be silent now. Except for the convenient “look I’m at church with my kids!” photo op.
I’m surprised she’s still willing to let him tag along and use them for image cleanup. I mean it made sense when she was married to him, but she doesn’t owe him anything now. Especially given the fact that he was groping women while he was married to her. That news would be the end of my PR assistance.
Isn’t he putting her on the spot, though?
not at all. she’s clearly going along with it, and maybe she’s just misguided, but given that the both of them seem addicted to pap walks like it’s 2006 it’s easy to see through it.
She is not clearly going along. He shows up where she and the kids are going to be (and have been for over 2 years). He knows the paps are there to photograph her and the kids – they’ve even shown up and taken pics when Jen wasn’t there with the kids. He knew it and took advantage to show up – KNOWING the headlines would state they are UNITED – probably because his PR makes sure that is the headline.
She avoided being captured in any shot with him and they arrived separately. Her simply being in the same place WITH THE KIDS is not going along.
If this were done with her consent and input, they’d have photos of them all together, with Garner smiling. That was the way it always was before. They don’t even have shots of them in the same frame, here.
He showed up on his own. They did not arrive together or leave together. It is not like she can stop him from showing up to church.
she can certainly stop him from showing up with the paps, by telling him she won’t comply, and won’t be seeing him in public until he behaves like a proper adult. but then again, she’s also not above pap walks, so they both have this problem.
honestly guys, if georgina chapman was behaving like JG, everyone would be side eyeing her and rightly so. it’s just because it’s JG, and she gets away with it because of her stans contingent.
How is she complying now? Without making things messy in court, she can’t stop him from showing up places where the kids are. And I have no idea how you think she can stop him from calling the paps.
They just got ice cream together a couple of days ago
Telling someone to do something and they comply are two separate things. He has never respected her before why would he now?
They. Were. Not. Together. She took the kids to church, as usual. He showed up separately. Should she get a restraining order to stop his pap strolls?
She’s the one that calls the paps
Sure, right.🙄🙄
I don’t think she did this time. He was the one smiling for the cameras.
How do we know this though? If she goes to church every Sunday and the paps know that then…??
Ben has a lot of heat on him at the moment and rightfully so. How do we know that he didn’t just call her and say “I’m going to church with you today”?
How could she stop him?
I don’t want to be naive but just throwing some other possibilities out there. Because it doesn’t behoove JG in the slightest to be seen with Ben right now and it’s hard for me to believe that she would feel like doing him a favor in light of recent allegations.
‘it’s hard for me to believe that she would feel like doing him a favor in light of recent allegations.’
i think that’s exactly the point. it’s hard to believe, but it’s obviously what is happening. mind you, i don’t believe in this instance she’s calling the paps (although she very often does when it suits her), that’s probably on him. but i don’t believe for a moment that once the paps are gone and they’re alone she wouldn’t address it and put a stop to it if she disagreed.
i’m not saying she’s doing it to deliberately hurt the women he harassed, it’s probably just a misguided attempt to sweep it under the rug because he’s her children’s father, but it’s still nagl. no one in that family needs this.
It’s not obvious at all though. From the video, the only obvious thing is her disgust and irritation with Ben.
i didn’t see disgust and irritation with him, just irritation with the paps. which makes me think it’s him calling them sure, but she’s still going along with what he wants.
i wrote it upthread, but both JG and halle berry campaigned to have a law passed so that their children wouldn’t be in pap shots. we never saw HB’s children again since, while JG’s children never stopped being in pap shots. furthermore in britain you have a chance to blur children’s faces if you want to, many many celebs get it done before pap shots appear on like the daily mail, JG never bothered and yet she campaigned so hard for it. i mean i feel like the bad guy for pointing out this stuff, and to a degree i feel for her, but come on she’s obviously participating in the fatfleck purge. i hope she opens her eyes and stops indulging him at some point.
She’s always done this though. At the start of their relationship he was very well-known as a frat-ish sleaze, and she worked hard to present a different image. Throughout their marriage she did happy family pap walks every time their were rumours he was cheating, every time people started talking about his alcoholism and drug abuse, every time it came out he was practically living at casinos, every time people reacted badly to one of his career decisions…they even did a bunch of excessively posed pap walks years ago when the stories about his brother first came out. I’m not exaggerating when I say that 90% of the photos of him with his family tie in directly with times he needed some good PR. When he was doing well you’d have thought he was a bachelor.
She even helped him out after their separation when it came out he’d been sleeping with the nanny. During the most tumultuous time in his children’s lives, he decided to bang their nanny and cause them even greater disruption, and Jennifer was still there to pick up the pieces for him. Not for the kids, for him. Making him look like a good father publicly does nothing for the kids, except open them up to more exposure.
oh is that how it went? wow, that’s low of him. He always looked like he was forced to go anywhere with them while they were married.
Exactly.
I agree w you Jerusha. I think he’s actually putting her in a weird position. She doesn’t want to be that arguing negative parent and create stress for the kids by fighting w him at church…but I’m fairly certain she sees this for what it is. He’s using her. Even if she was a super doormat in the past, I think her eyes are open now.
I think the problem was feeling completely sympathetic is she hasn’t filed for full custody yet. At this point, I believe Affleck is a clear danger to his own children. What type of parent uses a child like this.
I don’t believe it’s her responsibility to babysit him, nor do I think “Oh she should have known before she married him”, I think she dragged her feet filing the divorce papers and suspect that was due to her still wanting to be apart of a power couple but I can’t really hold that against her.
Now though, it’s clear that Affleck is a drunk, much like his brother Casey he’s sexual harasser and assaulter. Instead of going to rehab and admitting his behavior has been wrong, he’s using his own children to deflect from the situation. She needs to file for sole legal and physical custody. I agree she didn’t want this pap walk, which is why she needs to really consider filing for sole custody of these children. As horrible as it will be, these children are clearly not what Affleck is considered about right now.
Sure, like going to church is gonna prove you’re not a gross abuser *roll eyed*
Child molesting priests probably think church makes them look sweet and innocent. Abusers are gross and disgusting no matter where they are
They didn’t arrive together so maybe he knew their church schedule and decided to join. He is working hard to rehab his image aside from his alcoholism. Ben needs to disappear for awhile to overhaul himself. All these pap strolls and photo ops as a “good father” are so fake.
It might also be a special occasion at the church with people they are both friends with. He doesn’t usually dress like this for church, but neither do Jen or the children. I used to wonder how they got away with dressing so casually for church. Now I wish my church had been the same.
The kids are in their typical play clothes. Only Ben and Jen dressed up.
I only set foot in church when I visited my parents, but I would see people-adults-dressed as if they just came in from the beach. And this was Southern Baptist! In Arkansas! Dress codes have changed, definitely.
Ben reminds me a bit of my ex-husband. Both are drinkers and they have such depressed looks when they are with their kids. As if the kids have forced them into a life they never wanted. What a wanker.
After seeing the ice cream shop video, I don’t think she has anything to do with this. I think he came on his own and knew she would be there with the kids. She still has my benefit of doubt on these particular outings.
I know anyone who watches that video will have an entirely different view of the situation. i speak as someone who many times has criticized her. She clearly did not want to participate in the photo op.
Exactly, he’s disgusting. She wants no part in this, but I actually think their settlement includes maintaining his family image. For a long time that also aligned with JG’s interests, but now he is dragging her into his mess and she’s boxed in.
I’m gonna have to watch it now. So this asshole is just showing up? FFS he is unbelievable…
The part in the beginning of the video where he spots the video camera filming them standing in line and then reaches in for a hug with both girls? So blatantly obvious. He is a terrible actor. The older girl pulled away from him, too.
There are 2 videos – one by X17 and the other by backgrid. The Backgrid is the one that shows Jen entering the shop, Ben trying to hug her and her pulling away and moving on. The photo of his hand on her back was taken from that split second of frame.
exactly. if you think she’s ochestrating this, watch that video.
For me, it cemented that Ben is doing this, and how f*cked Jenn actually is. He managed to come across as the bumbling idiot, and Jenn the ‘mastermind’, but come on.
Who is going to be better at manipulating the public opinion? The charming abuser? Or the wife who listened and believed him for years.
i’m always asking you the same questions, but it’s always the same point. it can be both. JG can be both a victim and someone who’s not above curating their image to his advantage. real people are layered, you can be lots of things.
I get what you’re saying, I really do, but for literal YEARS we have been told what a master PR manipulator Jennifer Garner is, how she’s the true Amazing Amy and that she’s going to make Ben regret that he ever lived, etc etc. I know you know what I’m talking about because that was relevant until about a week ago, before this scandal. So this 180 spin, that she’s somehow a victim and not a player, is a little hard to swallow. She’s been so involved with his pap strolls and rehabbing his image in the past.
I mean, she could have sent a nanny to the ice cream store to pick up the two kids, which seems to be the reason she went there. She could have sent the kids to church with a nanny this week, or let Ben take them on his own (lol). So to some people it looks like she’s STILL participating and you’re going to have to accept that.
And instead of examining what we were fed, we are regurgitating it as fact. Why exactly do you believe Garner is a master manipulator, because gossip blogs say so?
Would a master manipulator get into and stay in a relationship that showed them in a poor light? Would they present the narrative that they are manipulative? Or would they put it on someone else.
Imagine for a moment you are an abuser. Who is the one person you don’t want telling your story? The person closest. The person who saw all the dirt. The person you convinced, too. Until they woke up.
And how do you make sure they aren’t listened to if they do wake up? You set the stage.
My best friends abuser convinced everyone that she punched herself in the face. How? Because his constant comments about her craziness. He set the stage, and he was a low level user. Not a high functioning one, like Dogfleck.
As Sixer mentioned, remember the mirror. Many men like this will slowly position everyone around them as manipulators and abusers. Affleck will have had as much to do with Garners image as his own.
Now again, this is not to say Jenn isn’t image conscious. Or that she didn’t call paps herself sometimes. This is to say, please, examine this narrative. Please examine how sexist narratives are adopted by the press, and by gossip, because they are convenient. They fit very nicely into those brain ruts we all have from living on a diet of this from birth.
Those are valid points detritus.
He went to church so it’s all good….
Ugh. he is so gross.
On a lighter note it’s nice to see JG is upping her shoe game.
Gianvito Rossi. Her shoes.
Everyone here who persists in thinking she’s participating in these recent pap walks please go to YT and check out the ice cream video. She is DONE!
Yep, she is done!
if she’s done she certainly hasn’t communicated it to fatfleck, since the pap walks keep happening.
So you watched the video? She doesn’t seem like she is going along with shit. Seems like Ben is showing up and instead of traumatizing her kids and making a scene, she’s begrudgingly putting up with it. JMO.
@ell, you seem to think she can stop him? How? Asking nicely? He’s gonna do what he thinks is in his own best interests, and I don’t believe for a second that he will give a fat rat’s a** what she wants, even if it involves the kids.
I felt SOOO bad watching the video of him walking away from church with Violet. He is messing with that poor little girl’s head and heart so bad.
by refusing to comply. do you seriously expect me to believe that she told him to show up after church to pick up the kids in a private spot, and instead he showed up unannounced, with the paps and still managed to take the kids away?
i just don’t, sorry. i understand people want to keep an open mind, but frankly i don’t see how. i hope she soon realises she doesn’t need to pander to him this way. it’s such a mess of a situation.
Ell, yes, that’s what I am saying. Ben is doing what Ben wants to do. He isn’t going to listen to Jen. The point of his being there was to be SEEN. He only took Violet. In the past, he has taken only Violet and taken her to karate class. Jen CANNOT stop Ben from showing up at church. Also, how do you tell the kids, I don’t want you seen with your dad in front of the photographers so hide from them. You attribute a great deal of control to Jen and I don’t think for a second it’s there. Ben will do what Ben perceives is best for Ben, notwithstanding Jen’s wishes (as shown by his behavior for many years).
I think she has been done for a long time. I have no idea why some people insist that she wants him back. I think it is pretty clear she does not. She looks happier now that they are not together and it shows. When he is around she just looks annoyed.
If I had to guess it is because the divorce still isn’t final and because she isn’t with anyone else publicly. Both of them were hedging during the “separation” in regards to reconciling and for some people, when SHE moves on with someone else, only then will it be officially and totally over. I am not describing myself, just what I imagine others might be thinking.
I don’t have audio, but watched it. She looks PISSED. I think he set her up with that whole thing, and when she goes inside it looks like he comes into view and starts to embrace her (for the cameras of course), and she side steps him.
She’s not done.
She has staff. She has nannies. She’s been papped at that ice cream store plenty of times before (it’s the perfect place, so open that paps can get perfect photos from the other side of the street).
If she didn’t want to be photographed with him, she would have sent someone else to collect the children from him, or told him that no, she wasn’t walking into an obvious trap and he’d have to get ice cream and then take the kids somewhere more private so she could get them. She had all the power here. He didn’t bring the paps to her, she came to the paps.
She didn’t look happy, no, but they’ve never been above playing out narratives through the paps. Their separation vacation had them acting out a whole range of different emotions, all while a particular pap just happened to be constantly standing 20 feet away.
Exactly. If she didn’t want to be photographed with him she wouldn’t be. Painting her as some naive victim of his manipulation isn’t any better than painting her as some manipulative witch.
I have been wondering too why more women have not come forward about Ben. I really suspect his PR team are working over time to nip any in the bud before they are public if possible. He has been known to threaten lawsuits before and issues Cease and Desist orders. There was a website Mel Knows that got shut down because of his threat of a lawsuit years ago, she was reporting on some of his shenanigans at the time and stated that was why she was shutting down or else someone else reported that tidbit. I remember reading about it. Then there was the uber driver who deleted her tweet about Ben being in her car with a blonde and when asked why she deleted it, she replied “Ask Ben Affleck”. There was the lawsuit in Detroit re the woman suing a famous franchise actor for giving her a certain disease, which was gaining momentum but died really quickly because I suspect a huge settlement was offered to settle out of court. Though no proof that was him, it fits .
He was able to pressure poor Gates into editing that show. I wouldn’t be surprised if he paid that journalist to come forward about the “game” video (that makes him look really bad) to defend him and/or is having his lawyers pay women off as we speak.
Or perhaps there is going to be another expose with him as the target and whoever has it is biding their time. However he looks SO SMUG on the church stroll that I’m inclined to think that it’s payoffs.
Groper goes to church.
Cancelled.
Yes, Ben Affleck is cancelled.
These people with their family pap walks. Stop already.
I loathe him now. He never did the school run before but last week was all over it and getting photographed doing so. Then the ice cream trip, holding hands and all that bullshit. Now we get a church stroll with him in dress clothes. He hasn’t stayed for a church service in MONTHS. He is so transparent and that smug, cat-that-got-the-cream smile on his face makes me sick. The tabloids love to trash him. Why don’t they call him out on using his kids?
As for Jen I do not think that she participated in either of these two pap strolls that he’s put together. I do think that it’s her own fault for getting dragged back into his disasters. If she would have divorced him (and finalized it) two years ago she could have totally re-branded herself by now. Not saying that she has to be with someone else but 99% of her public identity is still being his wife, and the other 1% is being an actress, IMO. People thought/think that she was part of the pap strolls because she hasn’t distanced herself from him enough. You’d think with him being with Lindsay that this wouldn’t be an issue but she’s covered SO much for him in the past that people are just naturally assuming that she’s still doing so. Just MY opinion, and PS it is Monday and I’m in no mood to go 10 rounds with some crazy fans over it.
A woman is married to a cheater, an alcoholic, a compulsive gambler, and this man does not present that image to the public. Instead, he convinces the public for years that he is a good ole boy, to the extent that his indiscretions aren’t touched (no one commented on the VJ), and he hushes up all negative information on himself (PBS silenced for the first time ever). He commonly uses misogynistic tropes to support himself and cast himself as the victim, while taking advantage of women in less powerful situations (nanny anyone? early 20s and under his employ?)
And instead of supporting the wife, who like the rest of us didn’t see this behaviour, and was perhaps even blinded by love, we blame her. Maybe not completely, no, but we required her to shoulder a portion of the blame for his behaviour.
How can we not see that by playing in to the narrative that women are conniving manipulaters, we are actually not seeing the men who position them like that? Why bothing convincing people the devil doesn’t exist, when you can pin it on a witch.
Blinded by love? LOL! Jen said herself, in print, that her eyes were wide open the entire time. People aren’t going to forget how she was instrumental in his image repair. He didn’t get that on his own. And yeah, he is a terrible guy but she DID protect him all those years. No one is saying that she’s a witch, most people are simply saying that she played a big part and isn’t blameless. You want her 100% vindicated and that’s not going to happen.
I don’t want her 100% vindicated, because I don’t care about her, not in particular. I care how the narrative is presented, and how this impacts every woman, and especially women in abusive or controlling relationships.
I want all women who are in relationships with @ssholes to be able to leave when they are able to, without judgement and accusations of complicity, and I’m challenging how we default to believing women are the manipulators.
I’m with you Detritus and I really appreciate your comments on this thread.
@detritus Okay, that’s nice but who said that Jen was one of those women in a controlling or abusive relationship? She isn’t saying that about herself, in fact, quite the opposite. When she comes out and does an interview about how manipulative, abusive and controlling Ben had been to her in their going-on-13 years of marriage, then I will agree with you. Until then, we have only her word on the subject. You’re trying to turn her into a victim and I’m not even sure that she’d accept that label herself.
Jen is a big girl and knows who Ben is, what he is going, and exactly how to respond to it all, both publicly and privately.
if you notice, especially in this thread, I don’t refer to Jenn as being a victim.
I refer to her as being married to an asshole. a manipulative asshole. I refer to the narrative being especially damaing to women who are in abusive relationships. Gradations on the same scale, if you ask me, especially since I view consistent adultery as abuse, but thats a different argument.
While there is an argument to make that my stance reduces agency, I’m not viewing Jenn as a victim. I am asking we suspend this narrative until we find out more information.
No one knows for sure Jenn calls the paps, or if Ben does. Or if Jenn calls FOR Ben. It’s all assumptions.
The only thing I know for sure is that this pattern and narrative is consistent with abusive and controlling relationships, and I will speak out about that.
@Kitten, thanks love, i appreciate you taking the time and effort to be present here, as well. I think I may be the very definition of crazy though, still here doing the same motions, hoping the reaction might be slighly different.
@detrius Until Jen says that she was in an abusive or controlling situation with an asshole you cannot assign that to her. She was married to him for more than a decade. She KNOWS who he is and didn’t care for many years. Her eyes were wide open (her words). Asking that we suspend the narrative??? wtf What are you on about?? People are discussing this and if you can’t handle it, too bad. Close the browser. You are all worked up and taking this situation way too personally. Affleck and Garner are strangers to ALL of us and it is all speculation. Again, why are YOU allowed to speculate but the rest of us aren’t?
@lolo, interesting. Do I sound worked up? Thats strange, because I’m not the one cussing, using caps, multiple question marks, or telling people to exit the conversation.
Other people are allowed to speculate. Notice how I didn’t hop on anyones thread to call them out, I just firmly do not agree with the direction of the speculation and feel it plays into sexist tropes.
Okay well you’ve stated your position and there is simply no need to browbeat others into silence or submission. It’s not your board and people are going to discuss what they want to discuss. You don’t have to like it. And yeah, you sound worked up.
And this is why women don’t speak up…. Other women will tell them they deserved it because of something they did or did not do. Women hold other women to impossible standards.
… andrea what is going on here?
I’ve never stated this is MY board, because it isn’t. If I’ve given anyone that impression, well I apologize to CB and the authors, because it is their board beyond a question of a doubt.
I have posted my opinion, well below the many commenters who disagree and have incidentally posted more times than I have on this very article. In fact, I didn’t even start a thread in disagreement. Strangely, you and lolo are the two who jumped in to disagree.
So please identify how I am silencing others. Please cite how I am browbeating. Please show me what words I’ve used to sound ‘worked up’.
It sounds an awful lot like the two of you are trying to paint me as ‘hysterical’, an interesting way to tone police, which plays into sexist stereotypes.
same old shit, different day, detritus. *shrugs*
detritus
Take it from me, when commenters pile up and gaslight you just smile and keep moving/expressing yourself. Even when I see things differently from you I never fail to appreciate how objective and respectful you always are. You rock!
Some people in this comment section seem almost gleeful to be able to default to their “it’s always the woman’s fault” tropes. It’s rather appalling. Thank you, detritus, Kitten, Jerusha for your comments on this subject. I’m not even a Jen fan yet her threads can be so upsetting.
We know Ben has many demons, we know he does. Jen has used the paps a lot for her image and stayed with a guy we all know is pretty awful. Somehow his groping women, which was a total abuse of his power, is being compared to Jen calling the paps as if they are equal actions. It’s bizarre and upsetting to keep reading this pretzel logic in people’s zeal to blame a woman for a man’s actions.
literally no one is comparing calling the paps with sexual assault. point me to a comment who says that.
thank you, Sophia. Sometimes you can feel a bit alone in your opinions. Especially when they aren’t the common ones. I really cherish the supportive women around here, yourself included.
“We know Ben has many demons”. Ben Affleck is literally the only famous addict gossip columns use PC sounding terms like “demons” to describe. I don’t know if this was to avoid law suits in the past or because he was so well liked. But let’s call a spade a spade. He doesn’t have demons he is a drug/alcohol/gambling addict and a serial cheater. He is an addict like any other Joe on the street. He refuses to admit it, the studios refuse to admit it, his wife refused to admit it, the press refuses to admit it and his fans refused to admit to it when he was still with Jen. It’s puzzling. He will never commit to rehab until he admits to this.
Not a Garner fan either but I would go to bat for any woman who is subjected to this level of unwarranted vitriol.
Just a slight correction, the Nanny was roasted to hell by 90% of commentators on Celebitchy each time there was an article on them. Paragraphs and paragraphs on her being a bad employee and not being very attractive with a single throw away sentence on Ben being also responsible. She was never treated as a subordinate who was taken advantage of by Ben but the aggressor. See old posts. Jen is not responsible but she knew he was an addict and a serial cheater who doesn’t always wear condoms. All that information prior to having the third child with Ben.
How does this relate to detritus’ s comment? Are you saying because some commenters slammed his mistress that Garner should be fair game?
Saint Jen is always given the benefit of the doubt by her own stans. The other women are just evil cheaters despite a total lack of proof. Her stans are going absolutely bonkers in this post because her mask slipped and people know exactly what she is now.
the nanny was roasted very unfairly in my books. i remember the nastiness there as well, and i was dissapointed.
My comment was actually a bit of reframing, because i doubt most commenters even viewed her as being less powerful.
Thank you detritus, paranormalgirl, kitten etc. Totally agree with you and am ignoring the nastier/unhinged comments (par for the course on these stories, unfortunately).
Spot on Deitrus. It seems so much easier to blame the “manipulative” wife rather than the actual perpetrator, her husband. I don’t get the hate that Garner gets when the topic subject is supposed to be about Affleck.
Jen is in an untenable position. She has to raise her children with this jackass. Pretty sure she can’t do a whole hell of a lot if he decides to pap stroll HER family oriented behavior. She isn’t going to call him out publicly no matter how much better it would make us feel, because she has to deal with the backlash, she has to manage the repercussions. And as a person that has to deal with a narcissitic ex, I have no doubt the children get to bear the brunt of that backlash. Because that is what abusers do. She sacrificed and worked her ass off to save her marriage and her family. She has since done everything she can to maximize his positive interactions with the kids while trying to maintain certain boundaries. (That ice cream shop set up looked like a boundary crossed) She has to “manage” that dickweasel, because her and her children have to suffer the consequences.
It is real easy to sit back and hurl shoulda-coulda-wouldas, when it isn’t you paying the price. Trust me, having to keep your mouth shut and smile in order to protect you children from the fallout isn’t as much fun as it sounds. At least this “doormat” hasn’t found it to be so.
I don’t think I am going to to be able to stomach another 200 comments, half of which blame or otherwise ridicule Jennifer Garner for Afflecks behavior and whereabouts. All while maintaining a self congratulatory tone that THEY would handle things oh so much better.
Here’s hoping you never find out. Because it sucks.
Dickweasel.😂😂😂 I’m gonna borrow that in the future.
And, PS, agree with your post.
Can we find a quiet corner to hang out in? I’m feeling dissapointed, today.
Jenn provides such an intersection, cheated upon, mom, ambitious. Its like prime I woulda done better territory.
Me too please. Feeling very disappointed.
Provided drinky-poos are involved, I am in. The repetitive nature of these “conversations” is draining.
I can’t help but feel for Garner. If you have never been the object of a narcissist’s charm and manipulation, it is almost impossible to understand the effects. Because that worm doesn’t turn until they know you are well and firmly on the hook. I know the feeling of wanting to keep the family together at all costs, I know the slow realization of who and what you are actually married to, and the agonizing fight to reclaim your own identity. And I am sure that there are all kinds of women that would line up to tell me I should have known. I should have been stronger, or smarter. THEY would never be such a doormat, so naive, so gullible. They wouldn’t have been one to tolerate it. And maybe they wouldn’t have been. *shrugs* My heartfelt congratulations.
I can tell you having to make the choice to stand up to someone like him, knowing the children will be the ones to suffer, or sitting down and letting it roll over you so they don’t …isn’t fun. Or even a choice, really. You smile, you play nice, you DON’T deck him when he shows up at church to rehab his image as a family man.
I hope Jen can find some happiness or peace in spite of Ben. And the rest of the world blaming her for him.
Happy, if you ever had to deal with a narcissist, and it sounds like you did, I am glad as all hell you got out.
You know this, I’m sure, but it bears repeating.
You did not deserve any of that. Not one bit. Nothing that f*cker said or did, and definitely not the judgement afterwards.
They are so scary charming, and people are so very unaware of how they operate. Once you’ve seen it in action though… you don’t forget.
Thank you for sharing something so personal. I sincerely hope some of the commenters read this and it helps them understand. Cheers to you, love.
*massive amounts of applauds*
Is there room for one more? So distressing.
So do all these people vent this kind of vitriol and blame on their friends who post happy facebook photos all the while struggling in their marriage? Or women who stay with unfaithful husbands and try to build a normal life and even try to help their husbands succeed in other areas of their life? Relationships are complicated. Love is complicated. And raising children together after divorce is the most complicated of all.
The only one responsible for Ben’s actions before, during and after his marriage is Ben.
Come sit, love, we always have space.
Thank you… truly. It has been a few years, and the kids are almost grown. I am lucky, ptsd aside, and that isn’t nearly so bad as it used to be. A lot of women don’t get out.
Don’t know Jen, don’t know Ben, and none of it is any of my business. But sometimes in all those pictures I see myself, struggling smile. Be happy. Count my blessings. Because I signed up for this, right? Nobody made me marry him. And I have so much to be thankful for… who am I to complain, it isn’t like he hit me… the children are the most important thing, and they need their dad, so… keep smiling.
It is heartbreaking to me. I just… get it, I suppose. Her staying for the kids, her wanting to believe to best of him, her holding her nose and her head high and stepping out on family outings, her almost losing it in an ice cream parlor. I get it.
+ 1 million
I think that bottom picture of Affleck and Garner just sums up their entire marriage….
Affleck has been parading his GF for months – weekends together in LA and NY – leaving minimal kid-time in between. We’ve seen the kids with JG, so we know when they are not with him.
He is sure to include that “wants to make his GF happy” quote in every article, even. He has wanted us to know he has moved on and is soooo happy.
Now, all of a sudden he has a PR crisis and he is front and center with the kids, and tries to draw Jennifer in that because it has ALWAYS WORKED IN HIS PAST. He’s using an old tool, hoping that it has the same effect as it did before. The thing is, IN THE PAST, Jennifer was part of the team and so it authentically included her.
Now, she has worked for MONTHS to exclude him from part of her image. She has made it so obvious that they are merely co-parenting the kids and have no relationship otherwise. He is so obviously using her, and manipulating her and the circumstances with the kids to recreate the family friendly image that we have seen NOTHING of for months now.
Please, women, do not be a part of this with him. Do NOT let him “ab-use” his family by getting away with this crap. Call it out for what it is. This is how men like him get away with stuff – women always want to hold other women responsible for men’s behavior – as if they are all-powerful somehow.
If that were true, sexual assault and harassment couldn’t even exist for women, could they?
The putting his hand on her back was the most blatant attempt to connect himself to her as far as trying to show they are on very friendly terms that just threw him over the edge for me. It was all for the paps. Since their separation, when has he ever touched her, even during their friendly co-parenting outings for the last two years, before Lindsay was brought out as his girlfriend?
Whether or not Jen encouraged or participated in these last few pap strolls (the ice cream store, the school event, church) is incidental. He successfully rehabbed his shitty image with her help. This is what he knows to do when scandal hits and the tabloids give him what he wants. Ben learned to do this from their time as a couple, and even after their fake separation back in 2015, the two of them still played at it by going on media tours about co-parenting and leaking everything to the press. If she’s between a rock and a hard place now because he’s still playing the game and she doesn’t want to, well… you made your bed, dear, and now you’re gonna have to lie in it. Not having much sympathy here.
For years I’ve referred to Garner as Hollywood’s Lady Macbeth. I have no doubt she’s pissed. This wasn’t part of the bargain at all.
If she couldn’t become the huge star she wanted, she’d out-Rita Rita Wilson and become Hollywood’s #1 Wife. But that’s hard to pull off when your husband’s a drunken lout.
I often wonder if she regrets marrying Affleck when she could have had a bigger star in Tom Cruise if she’d held out another year or so. Sure he’s a Scientologist but that’s a helluva lot less embarrassing than what she’s dealing with now.
She was ambitious no doubt, but she had aspirations for THEM not just for her. She couldn’t just swap out the groom, she wanted Ben. She loved Ben too much, IMO. I think he loved her, as much as he was capable of, but he was probably never as deeply in love with her as she was with him.
Damage control for him.
She goes to church every week and she clearly didn’t come with him
Dude is a POS. He knows she isn’t going to deny him access to his kids, especially at church, so he shows up pretending it’s a family occasion when it isn’t. I doubt she’d go to her attorneys about this, since they are trying to make it easier on the kids, but damn…he’s a jerk for putting her and the kids in this position. Why doesn’t he pap stroll with the new love of his life?
Oh, they’re going to go back to sneaking around. Maybe we’ll get shots of them at the airport but he’s going to keep his gf on the DL until all of this blows over. He’s going to do as many family pap strolls as he can.
Can’t stand the very sight of this lumpy, bloated a**hole at this point. He’s a disgusting sexual harasser and no amount of staged family pap strolls is going to make any of us forget that. Loathe him.
When it comes to what she can do to stop Ben from using these kids in the photo ops she is in a lose lose situation, but not the way you think.
Jen could take Ben to court on the grounds of putting the kids in harm’s way. By using the kids for these photo ops, knowing how ruthless the paparazzi are in the wake of his sequel assault allegations. Her problem comes in because Ben could use her years of using the kids for a photo op when it was convenient for her and their so called “family” image.
Personally, I think she knows that he got her trapped between a rock and a hard place and because of that, these photo ops will continue and will hurt her image in a process.
Your comment is spot on.
I feel really bad for the kids because when they get older they are going to look back and see that they were just pawns in daddy PR game.
I think Ben needs to know that we’re all aware that pics of one prancing into church is not going to solve his problems just like sitting in a garage is not going to make you a car. Do us all a favour, go to rehab and deal with your issues.
We could get video footage, with clear audio, of Jen screaming in his face, “Ben Affleck, I hate your filthy guts. I am completely out of love with you and my only interest in you is making sure that our children still have a father. I will not help you cover up your sexual assault, I want nothing to do with your manipulation, and I’m extremely pissed that you’ve dragged me and our children into this mess,” and there would still be posters here reaching for a reason to blame & hate her. It’s astounding. If Jen Garner gets you so worked up that you cannot even fathom showing her an ounce of compassion, even when presented with clear evidence that she has nothing to do with her ex’s disgusting behavior in this instance, you have some inner sh!t you need to look at. Wow. Just wow.
Most of us have been around long enough to know what’s up with these two and their PR games. We just don’t buy what they’re selling anymore. I guess some people (stans) expected one member of the couple to come out smelling like roses but you know, when you roll around in the dirt with the pig for so long, there’s just no way to get the stink off.
If it were joint PR, ok. But, it’s not. It’s someone who has multiple allegations of sexual misconduct being made against him using his ex and kids to try and rehab his OWN image – hurting them in the process. And Jen is getting the blame for “letting” him do that.
This is the same process that says only a virgin can be r*ped. If the “victim” has a past, then they must be complicit in today’s crime, right? It’s an extreme analogy, of course it is, but that’s the thought process/filter through which all allegations of sexual assault, etc. is viewed and which has to be overcome for women to ever be able to stand up to this nonsense.
Men band together, having each other’s backs, no matter whether they deserve it or not, and that’s why they get away with what they do. Women rip each other apart, whether they deserve it or not, and that’s why we can’t win in these situations.
Read the tweets – victim blaming ALL OVER THE PLACE. Women, please take better care of each other!
i actually find some of these reactions exhausting. for instance:
‘This is the same process that says only a virgin can be r*ped.’
……. wtf? i’m confused as to how this is relevant at all.
Nah, she’s covered up for him in the past, and is likely doing so again. She helped him trot out the family for photo ops to win Oscar #2, and made sure the paps got those shots of their family time over the last two years so that “no one would have to hate him” for her. WTF is so hard to believe about her doing it again? People are onto her and him and it’s about time. Calling her a victim in all of this is an insult to real victims.
It’s about the attitude. Deflecting the blame from the man who is responsible to shared responsibility by the woman nearest. It’s an actual thing and it permeates all areas and needs to be called out.
Whatever Jen may have done to help his image in the past, right now, in this ugly show he is putting on, it is HIM and HIM ALONE. She is clearly not part of it, and any blame sharing is inappropriate.
I don’t know her and I don’t stan or whatever it is called. But, she is a woman who is being mis-used and I will stand with her. It is easy to see who he is and what he does and it shouldn’t get a pass.
It’s not the woman nearest, it’s his freaking wife of 13 years who was instrumental in rehabbing his image, protecting him and cultivating his family man image. It actually *isn’t* clear that she isn’t doing it now and guess what? Some people think that she is still part of it. You can’t say that she is a woman who is being misused unless she comes out and says that. You’re trying to assign the victim label and it’s inappropriate considering Jen’s own public statements about her marriage. I think many people in here are projecting.
he gets no pass from me. he’s scum. and i think it’s disgusting that he’s calling the paps to show himself to the world as a father! who takes his children for ice cream! goes to church! him and him alone is responsible for this and the things he has done.
but i still believe JG should not participate to any of this. 2 things can be true.
@Shambles. Didn’t take but a few minutes for your point to be made, did it?🙄🙄🙄
lol literally INSTANTLY. Heavy. Sigh.
you’re not exaggerating at all.
No, I’m not, because in every single thread on this post you’ve been determined to make this her fault. No matter how many posters patiently present you with evidence that she had nothing to do with this, over and over again, you don’t want to hear it. So no, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we got audio of her telling him to f*ck off and it still wasn’t enough for you.
i can’t tell whether you’re serious or just venting. what evidence have i been presented with? there’s no evidence she’s not going along with his reformation pap strolls. the only thing i’ve been told is about ‘giving JG the benefit of the doubt’ which, fair enough. if people want to do that that’s absolutely fine.
some of you lot are being overdramatic over people making up their mind accordingly. i mean, everyone’s speculating, even the commenters saying JG is being manipulated and emotionally abused by BA; how do they know?
ETA: i wrote in other comments that i fully believe it’s him calling the paps this time. i think she’s annoyed by it. she’s still going along though, because they’re still happening. i do hope she realises, at some point, that she doesn’t need to humour him any longer. if she were a friend of mine instead of a celeb i’d think the exact same thing.
LOL it’s not that people don’t want to hear this patiently-explained so-called evidence, it’s that they disagree with your conclusions. Deal with it, seriously. Find a way.
I get that everyone wants to transfer their own hysteria and outrage about Ben onto Jen, but let’s get some perspective . Jen is not upset or angry or done because she learned anything new about Ben Affleck this week. Maybe people here did, but she didn’t. It was all public before she even married him (with the sole exception of 2014 party). It was al public before the nanny and before Lindsay even. If she’s upset, angry or done, it’s because her and the kids are being pulled into the headlines because the already-publicly known stories are being REVISITED.
As for church, when he goes, which is rare now, they’ve arrived/left separately for months now with no engagement publicly, so that’s nothing new. I think the last time was a few months ago when he showed up to drop the kids off at church during the initial Lindsay uproar.
On a semi-related note, why hasn’t Jen made any comment of support at all re: the Weinstein victims. I suppose that would be a landline for her to step into.
You’re right, none of this is brand new info for Jen Garner (the exception being the 2014 stuff). She’s known all about him and his crap for years. Nothing would be different between them currently if stuff hadn’t come out in the press.
What can she really say about Weinstein? People would point to her assaulter husband (still legally married, SMH!!) and her assaulter brother-in-law and their family friend who tried to kill the story back in the day.
Jen has never spocken out about any of these types of issues (sexism, ageism) and so on in the past so I don’t think she will on this.
Not true at all. See the “Elle Women in Hollywood” event in 2014, where she gave a pretty opinionated speech about sexism. She told the audience that when Ben did Gone Girl press, all anyone asked him about was the “ti** on the Blurred Lines girl” while she only gets asked about how she balances work with family. She then told the audience to, “Take a look and enjoy” referring to Emily. Yes, she was being sarcastic, but it was a low and unnecessary blow at Emily and came across as bitter (as there was that surge of gossip about Ben/Emily and how he handpicked her for GG), and given what we now know, Jen likely already knew about Lindsay by the time of this speech too, so she probably had quite a bit of resentment stored up. And of course she was taking it out on the women in Ben’s orbit. So yes, she has absolutely spoken about sexism when it suited her.
Well, she can’t win! She is not Ben’s keeper but is stuck having him blow in and out of her life because she has custody of their children. This is the cleanest he’s looked in months! Guess he’s gearing up a lawsuit defence.
Why hasn’t she legally divorced the prick yet? Jen Garner’s PR team/deranged fans all over the board today. LMAO…. Jen is NOT a victim. Furthest thing from it, so try again. In a few weeks we’ll have family trick-or-treating/pumpkin patch pics, then in another few weeks, a People mag article about a side-splitting and wonderful Thanksgiving, and so on. Garner is party to it all. So naive to think that she’s not and at this point in the story, you should really have a better grasp on the main characters. This is what she *does.*
Jennifer and the kids did the pumpkin patch (not the pap hot spot Mr. Bones) this past weekend. No Ben.
He was photographed at all of the kid events this weekend. He was probably there, too.
It’s not necessary to be a deranged fan to have sympathy for a woman who is being publicly shamed, no matter her image protection in the past. I consider it being a sympathetic, humane person.
Church?! What a shameless, flaming hypocrite.
Hypocrite using the Church.
Those Ben and Jen pap strolls with the family don’t have the same effect that they used to, that is FOR SURE. I am so tired of their drama and BS… I wish both of them would go away for a long while. I pity their kids who are being used as pawns and talking points in interviews and accessories in photo ops. They are the true victims here, not either of their parents. Decent parents would have moved away long ago, not settled for making them live in a fishbowl. How much money and fame do these people need? I highly doubt that paps would follow them to Santa Barbara or Newport Beach or some other affluent community where their kids could live in peace. Both are addicted to fame and the pap strolls and the attention that they get for their family unit, so they stay. Glad to see that they are *finally* being called out on it and that they are backfiring.
ETA: I’ll believe that she’s divorcing him and done with him when a judge signs those papers. Until then, nope.
It is backfiring. These pap strolls reek of desperation and make these two look more like thirsty celebrities than solid parents. I also feel sorry for the kids for being exposed to Ben’s inconsistent parenting. It must be very confusing and disruptive.
The paparazzi would follow Jennifer Garner to Timbuktu. Haven’t you heard?
The lights probably flickered when he walked in the church.
Perfect. Thank you.
New pics on x17 from yesterday afternoon at a neighborhood event where the kids go on the Fire Truck. Ben there again. It’s so interesting. He has basically been either out of sight or with Lindsay on both coasts since July. Now it’s been Thursday, Friday and Sunday (multiple times). With kids and Jen. So obviously a pr move. At least the kids are getting some time with their dad.
It’s a riot. And Jen doesn’t seem to be going along with his game for the paps. She doesn’t friendly to him as he’s talking to her.
And he’s been dressing nicer. He actually has on a nice black T-shirt, not his usual two or three crappy T-shirts he usually wears that look like he picked one up off the floor the night before and threw it back on. And I think he’s wearing new black jeans.
I love the the description by X-17 of the photo with Jen. “Things are frosty!”
Okay. The Dalmatian in the fire truck is cute.
Maybe WB bought him some new clothes before JL rollout. He does look much better when he wears decent clothes. Maybe the Buddhist rehab is really helping. Hey where is the sober coach that went to NY with him? I
@Jenfan, I don’t know. He has looked sober all of these family pap days, though.
I guess that’s not a real Dalmatian. I saw a clearer photo.
On a photo on the Daily Mail, it shows Ben touching Jen’s elbow. He’s poor, needy Ben trying to get back into Jen’s good graces. It always worked in the past. Of course, there was no new girlfriend before that he was being seen everywhere with, moved on. Since he started showing off his new girlfriend, until this there has been no friendly co-parenting shots. Really zero co-parenting shots except that one day for one of the children’s first day of school, and they were just standing there, not particularly friendly.
It doesn’t seem to be working this time. She’s not going out of her way to help him with his damage control tour.
Loved the dog – noticed it right away.
I do think Jen was genuinely trying to create a friendly co-parenting relationship with him in the beginning of the separation/divorce – she said in an interview that there was really no choice on that because of the kids. That’s why all the friendly photos together, etc. I think it was legit trying to get along and be a visible team for the kids.
Ben has made that almost impossible now by his offensive and over-the-top behavior, and I think he is only just starting to see the damage and problems he created by doing that. Whether he will ever actually appreciate losing the friendship, time will tell. Jen’s been in his corner for a long time and has a history of being forgiving, but I think that’s gone now as well. It’s highly unlikely he’ll own responsibility for it in any event.
It’s a shame, too, because friendly parents are so much better. But, it takes two.
@jayna. I wonder how close they are to finalizing the divorce. It’s 6 months since they filed. Maybe her apparent cooperation is part of that potential settlement.
Not Jayna but it wouldn’t shock me if they’ve made no progress whatsoever on their divorce.
I don’t know. Amy Poehler’s divorce from Will Arnett took four years from the announcement of their separation to finally being divorced. And they were dating other people during that time. It does appear that Jen and Ben were working on their marriage at some point back in the second half of 2016 and were keeping it quiet. I think at the end of the year, after his drinking got worse after the LBN flop, that whatever reconciliation they might have been trying was done.
So maybe they never started working on the financial part of splitting until she filed for divorce. I do believe she is moving forward on it,
We must be looking at different pictures. I know it’s fun to surmise stuff and create an entirely false narrative – like x17 loves to do for the clickbait. But I don’t see a single shot that shows tension. There are hardly any shots where you can even see her face. You can’t see it in the one where he touches her elbow, and in the other one, she was just snapped while she was talking.
I believe Jen might be over supporting him publicly, but it’s not because of anything that happened this week. They’ve been publicly distant/disengaged since he rolled out Lindsay. Prime example, the People cover story she shot down right after Ben and Lindsay went public saying Jen still viewed Ben as the love of her life. There’s no benefit to her overt public support anymore since there’s no shot of reconciliation at this point. She’s no fool either – she knows the media are monitoring their every gesture and facial expression, and she’s not going to give them anything in that regard. But I wouldn’t be so naive as to think she’s cut Ben out of the kids’ life or hers for that matter.
I believe their divorce filing was a combination of her realizing he wasn’t going to stop seeing Lindsay and his binge drinking breakdown around LBN. One of the articles when he first went public with Lindsay said he and Lindsay had “reconnected” in September (2016). Who knows if true but interesting because that was the same timeframe that those pictures surfaced of Ben/Jen arguing and Jen crying outside the kids’ karate practice, followed by another report of Jen crying/looking upset in the car with Ben after dropping the kids at school. I think the presence of Lindsay played a huge role in Jen’s finally accepting that she needed to throw in the towel.
Once the Lindsay relationship was rolled out by Ben, the happy co-parenting was over. Jen even leaked all the dirty details of how they got together and begging her to leave her family alone. She was a woman that was not going to let Ben and Lindsay be rolled out as some brand new respectable relationship. Right there shows you she was done protecting Ben’s image, but also that she was a woman scorned who wanted Lindsay outed, and Ben. I didn’t think Jen had it in her to do that. LOL
But I don’t see Jen smiling at any time Ben is around during this weekend. Yet on her own she smiles away for the paps, going into the church, and doing an errand this weekend. I do see strain when Ben is around. But you’re right. A few snapshots don’t tell the whole story. It’s all conjecture on my part.
I wonder how Lindsay feels knowing that the second Ben finds himself in hot water, he distances himself from her and makes sure he’s photographed with Jennifer and the kids three days in a row. He could’ve just done pap strolls with the kids, but it doesn’t have the same effect as being seen with Jennifer. Jennifer will be his get out of jail free card as long as she is willing to oblige.
@KBB Is that really the angle that you think all of this should take? That she should be upset that she’s “second” while he blatantly uses his ex-wife and kids for press? That is a really strange way to look at anything, frankly. But at least you’re acknowledging that Jen is an obliging doormat. We all know that once Ben’s involvement blows over (or he pays everyone off) he’ll be back to spending every waking moment with her and ignoring his kids. Will you be satisfied then?
X17 are the ones who think that there was tension between them yesterday. They’re the ones who stalk them so maybe there were things happening that the cameras didn’t capture. Who knows? Ben looks miserable but he always does when he’s with his kids, Jen looks angry but again, that could be the crazy botox eyebrows.
@G I honestly don’t even know where to begin. You obviously hate everyone involved, so nothing I say is going to make you any less angry!
Yeah the touching is new. He’s leaning into her so hard. Not literally, emotionally, from the photos it seems.
This woman was more than happy to allow herself and her children to be used to rehab Ben’s image time and time again over the past 12 years. Now that she’s not his +1 anymore, she’s annoyed? And her fans want to paint her as some kind of victim?! Lmao forever. That’s a new one.
She is going to wreck her face with botox. The DM has new pics from Sunday of her without sunglasses and whoever said that she had a Klingon forehead was spot on. WTF. She looks nuts, like Jack Nicholson arched eyebrows nuts.
US mag’s got a story up about them attending church together and how Jen is sticking by Ben’s side. She is forever his ashes and *forever* his doormat. Pathetic. She deserves every mistress he trots out and humiliates her with. Of course she hasn’t spoken up about Weinstein or supporting his victims — wtf is she going to say? She’s still happily doing pap strolls with an assaulter.
You know what’s interesting though? People, E! And other of Ben’s faves aren’t posting the Ben -Jen stories. Only US. I find that very mysterious. Those other mags have been all over Ben and his outings so consistently all summer. People has been silent about Ben since the groping came out.
I wonder if they know something is about to hit.
How cute going to church,..
Maybe he’s gone to hope the grope away.
Ben’s scandal hasn’t been erupting like Weinstein’s, unless some rag is sitting on some big story. These pap strolls have not been received at all like he/they thought they would be. Some bigger tabloid sites haven’t even touched the pics in any meaningful way, if at all. A site like People would have put up a gushing, breathleass article about all of their family time. Nada. He’ll be back to strolling with Lindsay Shookus in no time. All of this hand-holding ice cream strolling has been a huge waste of time and energy.
Is it me or are Ben’s looks morphing into Weinstein’s?
omg have I mentioned this before? I have it on good GOOD authority…like someone I know who was there…that he took a side piece to the rehearsal dinner of a late night host that he is friends with…and then took JG, his wife to the actual wedding. I heard this years ago and just forgot it until now. And it makes me think the same thing it did then…which is OF COURSE she knew.
was this shookus or someone else?
That could only be Jimmy Kimmel. No way he took a real sidepiece to a rehearsal dinner where wives of all his friends are, and it’s a wedding where Jen will be the next day, and relatives of Kimmel.. Sorry. Don’t believe that he could get away with that, humiliating Jen in front of a bunch of wives and normal nice people who are relatives of the bride and groom. It’s all about perception, and no one would get away with that, a wedding. Sidepieces are just that, sidepieces, and the wife is the public partner.
Maybe she was with the kids and didn’t want to be away two days from them. She had only had Sam only four or five months before the wedding.
It shows him arriving with Matt and Lucy. There were photos in magazines for both days. Was he talking to women or seated with a woman who had no date? Or could he have been flirting with someone since we all know he gets drunk and acts inappropriately? Probably.
Ben is sleazy, but as a married man bringing a sidepiece as a date to a public gathering of celebs and normal people celebrating marriage, and then bringing his wife to the wedding? Uh, no.
Freakin’ Howard Stern was there, the mouthpiece to the world on his radio show.
Maybe it was the nanny. Maybe it WAS Shookus. They’ve been secretly dating for years. She’s in the industry.
Pretty sure there are unspoken (if not explicit) rules regarding talking about private events even when you are a celebrity. Even for Howard Stern. That’s just silly. Either way, he for sure brought a woman who was not his wife. If Jen didn’t want to go, he could have gone alone.
But did he go to confession?
Thought not.