Ben Affleck’s post-split relationship timeline is complicated. Of course he got with the nanny in 2015 either when he was separated from Jennifer Garner or when they were working on reconciling. In August 2018 he had a fling with Playboy playmate Shauna Sexton, which seemed to overlap his relationship with SNL producer Lindsay Shookus. He got back with Lindsay in February, 2019 and they split around April of that year. That summer of 2019 he met a musician named Katie Cherry on Raya. They Facetimed for a while until they met in person that fall. Katie was with Ben when he was photographed looking wasted in October, after he had announced a year of sobriety. She got a little press rollout and everything. This week’s Star, In Touch and Life and Style all have similar quotes from Katie. They’re all owned by the same company, American Media, so it’s possible she only talked to one outlet. Katie claims that Ben only had one drink the night he relapsed and that he moved fast with her. Here’s part of what she told Star.

[Ben Affleck] was surprisingly down to earth. “He’s such a homebody,” Katie tells Star. “His favorite thing to do is sit at home, watch movies and have his chef cook something. I usually don’t date industry people because they’re so full of themselves and so Hollywood,” she adds, “but Ben is the complete opposite.”

He opened up to Katie quickly about his kids and former wife and even J.Lo, 52, whom he’d been engaged to before they called it quits in 2004. “He told me her ass is phenomenal,” reports Katie. “He seemed very enthusiastic about it!”

Things moved swiftly for Ben and Katie. “He wanted something serious,” she shares, revealing he told her he loved her quite early on. “He didn’t talk about marriage, but he did say ‘I love you’ really, really fast,” she says. “And he also asked me to move in with him! I was thinking about moving back to Buffalo and he said, ‘You should just move in with me!’” Katie didn’t say “I love you too,” she admits: “I didn’t want to lie, and I didn’t really see a full on future with Ben.” (He does like to move fast: By March 2020, Ben, who had recently told GMA he wanted a “healthy, stable, loving, committed relationship,” was dating his Deep Water costar Ana de Armas. The couple moved in together that December and split in January 2021.)

Katie and Ben spent most of their time together cozying up at his Pacific Palisades home. “I’m into film scoring so he was always trying to introduce me to his friends in the business, but for the most part we would eat really good food and watch really good movies. He cracks jokes every other minute so you can’t even watch the movie but it was hilarious,” she recalls. Once, he set up a romantic evening for her in his backyard: “It was really nice out so his chef did a candlelit dinner.”

Katie was also there for one of Ben’s lowest points. In October 2019, the rehab vet was photographed looking inebriated at a Halloween party a few months after celebrating one year of sobriety. “My friend asked us to this masquerade party, Billie Eilish was singing there and Ben had one drink,” she recalls, adding. “He had a vodka cranberry and it was almost clear. I’m pretty sure the bartender was like, ‘Oh, it’s Ben Affleck, I’m going to make it really strong,’ and it hit him really fast.” Katie says she asked Ben if he was sure he wanted to partake: “He said ‘Yeah, I’ll just have one.’”

When the story broke the next day, Katie says Ben’s main concern was his kids. “After the slip, the first thing he said was, ‘I’ve got to make sure my kids are OK,’” she remembers. “He wasn’t worried about himself. I felt bad for him.” The actor went straight to Jen’s house to see his children and stayed over for a couple of nights. “I can guarantee Jen was angry, I heard about it from Ben,” says Katie, “but she seems very gracious and level-headed and it seems like she does really care about him.”

Indeed, Katie remembers Jen constantly checking in with her ex. “He said generally that she was a really good mom and he was lucky to have her as their mom,” dishes Katie. “I did notice that she did call him quite a bit,” she adds, “but it seems like they just really love their kids and want to do their best to keep a good relationship for that reason.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, December 27, 2021]

That sounds really nice to crack jokes, watch movies and eat nice food. That’s like my ideal relationship apart from the fact that it’s Ben. It’s kind of gross that Ben was bragging to Katie about how J.Lo has a phenomenal ass. That seems just like something he would do. As for Jennifer Garner calling Ben a lot, their kids are in activities and I’m sure they have to keep in touch to coordinate schedules. It also doesn’t surprise me to learn that Ben said “I love you” fast and told Katie she should move in with him. Narcissists love bomb and future fake. Katie went on to tell Star that Ben seems like a great match with J.Lo as they’re both family oriented and love their kids. I hope Katie got some cash for the holidays out of this. Also she was smart to keep Ben at arm’s length.

Ben Affleck Plays Poker Wasted at Casino After Halloween Party https://t.co/RMt0c5JL8L

— TMZ (@TMZ) October 29, 2019

Photos credit: Backgrid, Star and via Twitter/TMZ