Yesterday there were photos of Ben Affleck’s 22 year-old girlfriend, Shauna Sexton (I still eyeroll whenever I write that), visiting him in rehab. It’s unknown why she had to go to his rehab to see him, because Ben also went home yesterday to work out again. Surely she could have met him there as she’s done all along. That’s presumably why she’s been driving his car, so it’s unclear when she’s there. He does have a privacy curtain installed in his driveway though now. (You can see the photos of Shauna here. She’s wearing a crop top because of course she is.) ET has some quotes from a source close to Ben’s estranged wife, Jennifer Garner, who says that this situation is frustrating for her. (These quotes came out earlier but I missed them, sorry about that.) A source from the rehab says this is a red flag for Ben’s recovery. These quotes are similar to Radar’s take on this situation:
“He had stayed in touch with Shauna the entire time he was in rehab and the people at the facility and friends had huge concerns about it because she isn’t sober,” the source said. “She is a huge, red flag to everyone that is trying to support Ben with his process. Shauna is giving him false confidence and that is their biggest concern.”
Affleck’s estranged wife, Jennifer Garner — who drove him to rehab on Aug. 22 — is also “frustrated” with the situation, the source told ET.
“Jen knows he is back at the house with Shauna and she is so painfully frustrated,” the source said. “She knows he has to do this for himself.”
As mentioned yesterday, how serious can the guy be about rehab if he keeps going home despite the fact that every time he does that it makes news? There’s a fitness center at Ben’s rehab along with a spa, saltwater pool and meditation dome. He could easily work out there but he has to keep going home to “play basketball.” Don’t worry though, he gets a pass and has a sober companion with him.
While Ben is in rehab his mom is staying with Jennifer Garner, she was spotted at church with Jen and the kids on Sunday. The official word is that Jen is working to promote Peppermint and needs help with the kids. They do have nannies, but it’s nice that the children’s grandmother is there to help. It’s also a reminder to her son that he’s making a complete ass of himself. A source confirms to People that Chris Affleck is in town visiting and states that “Jen has been super busy promoting her movie, and getting the kids settled back in school. She seems great. She has been very excited and proud to promote her new movie. The kids are excited to be back in school.” In other news about Ben’s family, his brother Casey says he’s doing great and stuff, since Casey is doing great and stuff too despite all we know about him.
photos credit: Backgrid
So in other words, rehab is not working for BA.
Hmmm, why is Shauna Sexton visiting him? Attention.
I’m no Shauna fan — I definitely think she’s an opportunistic famewh*re — and I’m not replying specifically to your comment, but can People/ET/whoever stop blaming Shauna for Ben not taking rehab seriously? How about we place the blame at the feet of the pathetic middle-aged self-destructive narcissistic man-child who hasn’t taken his relationships or sobriety seriously for 20 years? All this BS about “people are worried because Shauna isn’t sober” just makes me see red.
I agree with you Ben problems are his and no one eles and only he can fix them. Sadly both articles seem to be coming from Jen camp especially People.
Well, this does not seem like it will end well.
She raised some real asshole sons.
Don’t blame her. So did my mom. And she is a wonderful, kind woman. There’s a dad involved too you know? And our society. I mean, I don’t know. Me and my mom have tried to figure out for years how it happened.
My grandparents raised 6 kids, one son is a heroin addict,one is an alcoholic.Two are teachers,one is an attorney and my other uncle,served 20 years in the military and is an engineer.We can’t figure out why my other two uncles are substance abusers and have been in and out of jail for most of their adult life.
Well said.
Jojo, I know it’s crazy. My brothers aren’t substance abusers, but they are both trumpsters and that may give you idea of some of their other lovely traits.
My mom is amazing and wonderful, educated, accepting, supportive, and compassionate and her brother is a POS, racist, pious, Bible-thumping Catholic, trump-supporting, thrice-married a-hole who abandoned his first wife and young son after the divorce and shames his adult daughter for living with her boyfriend despite her being a self-supporting adult AND his own questionable romantic choices. So.
I can think of lots of reasons why she could be a wonderful person and her sons could have turned out…not to be.
I don’t know anything about her, so I don’t know if she is to blame, but can you imagine being the mom of those two? Ugh.
I think Ben probably needs to ditch the girlfriend, all girlfriends, focus on his health, and stay in rehab. It was bad enough that his ex-wife had to intervene, he needs the help and to take this seriously.
Ben was born with some strong addiction genes. I have seen over and over the nicest parents dealing with the horrors of addiction in children. He is an adult now and has to want to be well.
The sons seem to have inherited their father’s predilection for addictive behaviour. No matter how well his mother raised those sons, if the genetic predisposition is there no amount of tender loving parenting will help. My sister inherited an alcoholic tendency from our aunt and grandfather. I didn’t. Her life ended horribly, mine is going along just fine.
Ben and Casey learned how to be drunks and have dysfunctional relationships with women from watching their father. Ben said in an interview that he was relieved when his parents finally divorced because the marriage was so bad. The cycle will likely repeat itself with their kids, too.
I wish their kids will be luckier than their fathers. Casey told that he is sober for three years now. I think for Ben is more difficult to fight his addictions and be sober, as he is a narcissist Hollywood star who can’t live away from the limelight and he never had the patience to finish his therapy.. Or maybe his problems are more complicated than an alcohol addiction. Casey is not a huge star and he seems to can disappear for long periods of time. Maybe this is Ben’s lucky time.
So no mention of Ben’s Dad? All the blame for his Mom?
Cool.
I’ll amend – both parents raised asshole sons. Everyone happy now? If the story was about their father, I would’ve said that he raised asshole sons.
Chris is a good looking woman for her age. I think she would preferred to have a healthy son than a rich addict son. Child’s serious disease or death is the worst thing that can happen to a parent.
Good!
I think it is great that Jen & Ben’s mom seem to still get along. They are, after all, her granchildren. Ben is obviously not able to parent with Jen so it is nice that Ben’s mom can help & an added bonus…they get to see their grandma!
Everyone ,including even Ben’s brother Casey, is commenting how well Ben is doing in rehab. Usually when someone is constantly telling you how well they( or someone else) are doing, it is actually far from the truth!
I hope i am wrong, though!
Jennifer Garner has demonstrated again and again how much of an adult she is. Good on her and best wishes to her family. I hope Ben Affleck grows up and joins Jen in the league of adults but I’m not so hopeful.
With Jen around he doesn’t have to grow up.
Being driven to rehab after arrangements had been made by someone else is not “doing it himself” in the first place. He still hasn’t hit rock bottom so of course he is just going through the motions and not taking it seriously. Codependency is the real culprit in this saga.
Ben’s mother has always been very involved, not sure why it’s news every time she’s around.
Real rehabs (see Hazelden and Betty Ford) DO NOT allow you to leave and require humility, commitment, and work. You clean the floors just like anyone else and you do NOT get special treatment. (Look up stories of Elizabeth Taylor at Betty Ford- she had to wait to use a communal phone, ate in the cafeteria with everyone else and had to make beds sweep, etc) These places have a verified history of actually working for the treatment of addiction. These “celebrity rehab” DO NOT have the same record of successes and are often run for profit by people, not at all in the treatment or even Psychiatric/Psychology community and open and close constantly. He’s not serious about sobriety. If he was, he would enter a true treatment facility, not a place that offers all organic meals and massage.
It’s very obvious that the “People” article came from Jen camp. I don’t get why she has her people running to the tabloids pretending to be Ben mom saying how great Jen is doing, Ben is the one who looks like a mess not her, but Jen seems to always be too concerned about her image.
Her PR team should really stop mentioning her racist movie that bombed at the box office and how she promoting that image. That is what is reflecting poorly on her not Ben drama.
Affleck should have lived a Leo DiCaprio life and never gotten married or had kids. He never took the institution of marriage or parenting seriously, and he would be happier not experiencing the guilt of letting his kids down and being a failure to them. It’s no surprise that he isn’t following the program at rehab. He has been in and out of rehab facilities since 2001, always goes for the wrong reasons, never takes any of it seriously. There’s no way that his kids don’t grow up without issues from all of this turmoil. That’s a shame.
I don’t know, he might be dead if he had never married and had kids.
Shauna Sexton seems like a ” gem “, not.
Lindsay is a girlfriend for good times and not when the smelly stuff hits the fan.
I don’t think Ben takes his sobriety seriously otherwise he would be focusing at 100% on getting better instead of chasing the cheesy playboy model, not even a month after being taken to rehab by his ex-wife.
I think he needs a ton of help with a lot more than just sobriety.
He should grow up finally, it’s time.
Garner gets trashed a lot here, but she certainly steps up every single time.
Lindsay been wirh Ben for a couple of years and been with him though his multiple rehab “stays”. Yes I’m sure she wised up and realize you can’t save time and she has a daughter to think about. So what exactly are you talking about.
What is Jen stepping up to do besides enabling him. Ben is a grown ass man that none of these women need to be taken care of, he has three kids that he needs to be worried about .
@ Raven :
Yes and Lindsay has been with Ben while he was a married man with three young children.
She was also drinking with a well known addict that had long standing problem with alcohol and was in rehab twice before.
Some supportive girlfriend, drinking with a guy that had some serious issued with alcohol, very helpful.
She should have remembered her daughter while hooking up with a married alcoholic.
Garner seems to have helped Ben recently to rehab, he looked out of it.
I would not call someone saving your life or at least your liver enabling.
Only Ben can save Ben, but it certainly is crucial to have support for someone that has been struggling with addiction for many years.
I hope wins the battle for his sake and for his kids sake.
I wish him the best, even though he is a piece of work.
I have respect for Lindsay for leaving him. She would have been a even bigger fool to stick around and put up with Ben. Its obvious she loved the guy so I am sure it wasnt easy to walk away but she seems smart enough to know when to cut her loses and cut him off. I can’t say the same for Jennifer Garner though, still married to him and still allowing him to spend the night at her house when he ditches rehab on the weekend. Classic enabler.
@ ashby, You can be supportive of an addict from a distance, behind firmly established boundaries. What Jen is doing IS enabling, which is why Ben isn’t taking rehab or sobriety seriously and is back to a fresh cycle of rehab pap strolls. He will never hit rock bottom and actually go into real recovery as long as he has her propping him up. She desperately needs Al-anon. P.S. Shookus dumped him when he started drinking again, as per People Mag. She was thinking of her daughter and has walked away. Can’t say the same for Garner, who continues to expose young, vulnerable kids to Ben’s drunken antics. Thank god Shauna doesn’t have any kids.
@ ashby
If your going to judge Lindsay for what she may or may not have done. Then you need to judge all of Hollywood who were drinking at events that Ben attendant. Jen married Ben had 3 kids with him knowing he was an alcoholic and had gambling issues, and was drinking throughout their marriage, so are you going to judge Jen for that.
People attending events in Hollywood with Ben were neither married to him or were his girlfriend, so they can drink all they want.
Garner knew what she married, maybe Ben wasn’t as bad at the beginning of their relationship as he has become later, but she had an idea that he was no saint.
Lindsay knew all too well, he was a married guy with three small children when she hooked up with him and he was a well known addict when they started their affair and he already had two rehab stays behind him, so she also knew that he was no saint.
Sorry, but if you care for someone that has a significant, well documented issue with drinking, why in the world would you drink with them???
Please check out the many pics of Ben and Lindsay together hammered all over internet and on this site also.
The world doesn’t have to stop drinking alcohol, because Ben has a problem, but his loved ones certainly shouldn’t be drinking with him, at the least.
Ben was born with some of these issues, seems to have inherited it from his father, he clearly needs support in sobriety, not a drinking body = Lindsay.
Correction, Lindsay seems to have dumped Ben not because he was drinking, but because he was cheating!
I don’t believe that a man like ben Affleck was faithful to Lindsay . One of his addictions is maybe sex. I think he was seeing Bunny when Lin was away. When she found that he was cheating to her she had a good reason to leave him. Lucky enough!
@ ashby
Ben was just as bad when he got with Jen do you not remember how he was at towards the end of his relationship with J-Lo and after he was a drunken mess. It was all very public and well known. He cheated on Jen throughout their marriage and she continue to have baby number 2 and baby number 3 with him. Once again if your going to put blame on Lindsey then you need to do the same for Jen.
@ Raven :
Please kindly read my comments, I said that Garner knew she did not marry a SAINT, but some guys at the beginning of a new relationship may behave better than later on, because they are in love or they like their new partner, of course it rarely lasts.
I don’t know, if this happened or not with Garner and Affleck, but either way Garner knew that she didn’t marry a SAINT, as I said before.
I stand up 100% by my opinion that NOBODY that cares or loves for someone with a know alcohol addiction should be drinking with that person.
They should be supportive and not tempt them when they have a serious problem!
Lindsay knew that Ben had an issue with alcohol, goodness I knew it and I’ve luckily never met the guy, so she had an idea what she was getting herself into when they hooked up, he was an alcoholic and a married dude with three young children.
Why she would drink with such a well know alcoholic is beyond my understanding?
Ashby, people enable addicts in different ways. Lindsay may not have been right to drink in front of him. Equally so, Jennifer should stop propping him up and excusing his behavior. She never leaves Ben to clean up the messes he creates when he is intoxicated. She was literally photographed loading a drunk Ben into car and driving him to rehab instead of letting him go to rehab of his own accord on his own time by arrangements he made.
Lindsay has removed herself from Ben’s life, created boundaries and has stuck to them for the past month. You could see he started to spiral towards rock bottom after Lindsay held him accountable for his cheating/drinking and told him their relationship is over- something Jennifer has seemingly failed to do again and again. Jennifer makes his drinking possible by allowing him to flunk out of rehab and welcomed him to spend the weekend at her home when he ditched rehab.
Everybody around him has to be responsible, he can blow rehab again and again and again, but you still better support him. He has 3 children he needs to get sober for but chooses to bounce in and out of rehab daily. He doesn’t really care that much about them, does he? He’s putting a career worth millions on the line, but still expects to, and does get hired, so why take it seriously? Everyone who loves him has to do the right thing to help him over and over again, for literally years while he still gets to play at rehab. If you expect others to take his rehab seriously, you have to expect him to first and foremost.
Nothing is going to change Ben until he wants to and right now he has absolutely no reason to stop doing what he’s doing. Expecting others to change and modify their behaviour for him at this stage will do nothing.
Drinking with an alcoholic is just wrong. I don’t care who does, there is no excuse.
Many people knew that Affleck was in rehab twice already prior to this third time, so drinking with someone like A
Drinking with an alcoholic is just wrong. I don’t care who does, there is no excuse.
Many people knew that Affleck was in rehab twice already prior to this third time, so drinking with someone like A
@Ashby and Barcelona
If Jen has never said she doesn’t drink. Are both of you assuming that Jen has never drank with Ben? No a ship of wine or champagne at a event, wedding anniversary, wedding, birthday and so on.
@Lady D
You are right Ben has shown that he is not going to change and couldn’t give a crap about his kids. So Jen, his mom and every one else, are going to have to put up boudaries and stick to them.
I really don’t understand the all the arguing going on about Ben’s addictions and who to blame them on. How about he’s a grown man and his addictions are his problem? Not Jens, his mom, his dad, or any of his girlfriends. I don’t agree that he would be fine if Jen stopped helping him, I don’t blame Lindsey or this 22 year old young woman either.
Ben is his own worst enemy. I feel for Jen because I imagine myself in that position and the guilt I would feel, how much I would fear leaving him to his own devices and wondering if you don’t help him what if he dies? I find it hard to blame people for making mistakes when it comes to those they love. I would hate to be in that position and I don’t envy any of them.
Hopefully he’ll get help at some point. There is no guarantee he’ll live through this.
Agree with your wise comment Sophia. Sophia in Greek means wisdom!
time to let benny boy crash and burn!
It doesn’t seem like he has done much REAL parenting in the past 3 years since the split. He is a selfish defective man.
He needs to be shown tough love by Jen and his mother otherwise they are just enabling him by excusing his behavior. Jen is still allowing him back in the home on the weekends in-between his destructive partying behavior with Shauna. It must be – get sober or I file for full custody. And the filing of full custody should be followed through with if conditions aren’t met. Ben Affleck in the throes of addiction is a high risk person to his family and as a caregiver to his children. I think Jennifer is walking a fine line by knowingly exposing her children to an alcoholic like Ben.
Rehab is not working for him because it’s a cushy celebrity rehab. They don’t work. Nic Sheff wrote an article about it for Salon. Harris Wittels talked about Promises Malibu before he OD’d in Feb. 2015. Synanon was basically the same back in the 70s and 80s. These resort rehabs do not work.
I was given a short book at a conference–part of the swag–that I believe (if memory serves me correctly) was from Promises Malibu. I opened it to take a quick look and ended up reading about half of it. Oh my wowsers, it was something ELSE.
The main message of this book was that the addict is a victim who absolutely must have every single need catered to, and catered to in an organic, pleasing, affirming, never-ever-boring, endlessly supportive way. The food needed to be just what they want, the equine therapy sublime, the yoga and massages and pedicures designed to soothe and nourish and heal these special, precious beings.
You’d have to be super rich to be able to afford it, but if you had the dollars, they apparently were happy to give you the relentless ego massage of your dreams.
Nothing like what a person of color would face in the prison system, in other words. Nothing like it at all. And nothing like a reasonable, middle-of-the-road rehab that a middle-class person could undergo, either. Nope. Not even close. You have to be rich and special for Promises Malibu and others similar.
I couldn’t even bring myself to donate the “book” to the Goodwill. I threw it in the recycle bin and shook my head.
Pathetic.
I really feel for Jennifer, but she really needs to go to some Alanon meetings. Ben’s actions are bacisally a huge FU to her and the kids. He has no desire to get sober. Let him go drink Jenn, he’s made up his mind.
This Mickey Mouse rehab in Malibu that is letting him make up his own rules and leave to “exercise” (with his new Playmate friend) is a total joke. Ben is nearly a hopeless, incorrigible drunkard. How many times has he publicly and privately been to rehab since 2014? By my count it is more than half a dozen times. He’s doing it wrong. The people in his life need to move on, stop babying him, and let him face some REAL consequences. He’s never had to do that, you know, which is largely the reason sobriety doesn’t stick. Jen has never really left him. The divorce is barely real, and no, I don’t believe what TMZ was selling, that it was “settled” before he went to rehab. (It’s always something, isn’t it? RME)
The best thing for him would be for him to truly lose things that actually matter to him, whether that’s access to his kids, his health, his career, his money, what have you… if he ever hits rock bottom, that will be when he picks himself up, checks into a real rehab and finally starts the true path to recovery. This little PR charade for the tabloids isn’t it.
Sometimes we forget, it’s just not Jenn and her children being affected, she is apart of his entire family, it’s good that they have each other to lean on, even if they stay together or live separately, they will always be family, I do not think Jennifer loves Ben at all, it’s a tough situation all around.
Sending him to the Canyon, a resort where celebs are treated special, is a mistake. You’d think with so many years of alkie exposure Garner would know by now to send Ben to a serious treatment center like Betty Ford in Palm Springs or Hazelden in Minn. BUT it’s this twisted game they play: Ben disrespects her and their decade-long marriage by flaunting his many women and drinking, then crashes and burns, and Jen gets to feel wanted and needed by him (and gets to feel in control) when she swoops in to rescue him. She can’t help herself, she loves trying to save him even though each and every time is a failure. He momentarily sobers up and goes right back to trampling her. Sick… codependent. The kids will need a lot of therapy.
@ J
Maybe that is where he agreed to go. All the sources said he agreed to go to rehab.
I see Ben as being a my way or the highway kind of guy.
I think this relationship with Shauna has been going on ALOT longer than just before Jen drove him to rehab. I cannot imagine anybody that just goes out on a couple of dates with someone visiting them in rehab. But then again Shauna is seeing $ signs. This girl supposedly quit her job to be his ” assistant.”
Ive been sober for over 12 years now. I don’t think he needs rehab necessarily. I had rehab and it didn’t work. The only thing that did was me making a decision, sticking to it and dealing with the consequences when sh*t hit the fan. I think he needs a while (like 3-4 months) away. With therapy, a sober coach, not one provided by the facility but a real sober coach who puts him in his place, doesn’t take his sh*t and who he will actually listen to. He needs to figure out why he drinks. Probably bc he doesn’t like himself, he numbs to forget about all of the people he’s hurt, cheating, etc. He needs to come to terms with the person he has become and know that he can’t take things back, but he can always be better in the future. He also needs to get rid of his entire team of “yes” men.
But then again, what do I know? I’m just someone who’s helped friends, lovers, etc through addiction. The mind is an easy thing to trick. You just have to learn how your mind works and how to trick it.
I think you’re right, rehab might not be what he needs to get over his addiction – it seems to be what Jen Garner suggested this time around.
You are right – addiction can just be a way to self-medicate another psychological or emotional problem you are having. You have to address the underlying drivers of your addiction to heal.
On a separate note, I highly suspect Jen doesn’t actually want Ben to get sober because if he ever actually becomes crystal clear sober – he may push her out of his life because he doesn’t need to use her as a crutch anymore. As long as he is a mess and unable to be an independent functioning adult male – she knows he will not move on and remarry another woman. He will continue to run off his girlfriends like Shookus until he is sober and healed and Jen knows this.
I dated an alcoholic and we were in a codependent relationship and he treated me horribly, cheated/lied/abused and I stayed for a long time. . He told me years later that he was suffering from depression and used drugs/alcohol and ME as a crutch to feel better and escape his feelings. Who would he call to pick him up from jail when he was arrested for drinking? Me. Was I glad he called me and not another woman? Yes, because I was codependent like Jen. How was I repaid for helping him? He cheated on me our entire relationship.
This is not love. Jen, Shauna and Shookus are all crutches for Ben, they are only a means to an end for him.
Any woman in Ben’s life right now should be very weary of him and should be concerned his feelings towards them are not real.
I’ve devloped a rep as being anti-Jen and I think your view is spot on. It’s so odd how she REVELS in coddling him and being the martyr.
“On a separate note, I highly suspect Jen doesn’t actually want Ben to get sober because if he ever actually becomes crystal clear sober – he may push her out of his life because he doesn’t need to use her as a crutch anymore. As long as he is a mess and unable to be an independent functioning adult male – she knows he will not move on and remarry another woman. He will continue to run off his girlfriends like Shookus until he is sober and healed and Jen knows this.”
Fully agree; she doesn’t want to end this marriage and I do believe she is determined to control him by cutting his ability to stand on his own two feet. It is a common controlling tactic and I do wonder what on earth she thinks she is accomplishing.
After all, her latest movie has flopped and she’s clearly very nearly over professionally.
Exactly corpstepsister –
Ben bailed on rehab treatment on a Friday night and Jennifer allowed him to spend the night at HER home ….. If that is not the epitome of enabling an alcoholic, I do not know what is.
Thanks Stacey; I just have come to believe that Jen is milking this as much as she can since this is her final act, something that once it’s over, she’s over as well. This is the last gasp of a dying career and Jen is desperate to make it last.
I never bought her as a solid, perfect wife and mother and she looks way too energetic and carefree for a woman in her situation. No sane woman or responsible mother would be grinning happily as her husband falls apart and her marriage is crashing down.
During all this, she has looked way too happy and jolly. She’s acting like she’s on a successful career track and no sane woman would gladly end up having her soon to be ex-MIL in her house while her husband does damage to her children’s mental health.
What is up with her that she always looks so damn happy? She’s acting like a giggly schoolgirl, not a responsible mother of three trying to get her husband to sober up.
Ben clearly needs help, yes, he has to want to sober up on his own, but he also needs people that are fully and 100% onboard with his sobriety.
Being his drinking buddy is a terrible idea and it won’t end well.
When you are dating someone with addiction, be it Lindsay, Shauna or some other desperate woman trying to catch a rich dude, it’s not just a fun dating experience, it’s a very dangerous business and they are also 3 young children here.
This is superficial, but I was struck by how strong and stylish Ben’s mother looks in the photo. My first thought was, “What a woman!”
Team blow dryer. Blow dry your hair you are not that busy honey. Your children can all potty by themselves and make their own sandwiches. Get it together ugh
He seems not to have any connection with his own kids.never has. He is spending all of his “out time” with someone he barely knows, likely for sex. This doesn’t end well.
Obv Ben is complete trash and long cancelled, but Jen really needs to stop pimping out her husband’s illness as a way to promote her terrible racist movie.
Fully agree.
Her husband is struggling with serious alcohol problems and she’s grinning it up as if she’s at a premiere. Her children have been getting subjected to more dysfunction, but she’s brought her MIL in the situation and is merrily smiling to the press with her signature drenched hair look. She’s looking like the world’s biggest enabler and her entire persona is that of a happy housewife.
Those kids are losing out on their chance to have a happy childhood.
As for her career, she needs to give up and take her money and make a new life for herself. Hollywood isn’t throwing offers at her and I am certain that at this point in time, she’s just making a fool of herself for even trying.
@ Corporatestepsister : Wow, you need help, so much anger for a stranger.