Ben Affleck continues to share his battle with alcoholism along with how it has affected him and his family, stating how he does not want his children to pay for his sins.
Back in 2018, Affleck went through his third rehab stint in 17 years (and second in three years,) after ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who shares two daughters and a son with him, staged an intervention.
He then publicly relapsed again last October when he was videotaped looking intoxicated outside a Halloween party, which went viral thanks to TMZ.
“I really don’t want my children to pay for my sins,” Affeck, 47, revealed to ABC News‘ Diane Sawyer in an interview on Thursday. “Or to be afraid for me, which is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic. You think, ‘What if my dad gets drunk? What if he does something stupid? What if he ends up on TMZ, and it’s on my newsfeed and other kids see it?'”
Affleck revealed to the New York Times in an interview posted on Tuesday, how “…relapse is embarrassing, obviously. I wish it didn’t happen. I really wish it wasn’t on the internet for my kids to see.”
“Relapse is embarrassing, obviously. I wish it didn’t happen. I really wish it wasn’t on the internet for my kids to see.”
In a way, Affleck understands what his children are going through as he witnessed his own father battle the disease.
“My dad, he was drunk every day and that was just life,” he shared. “Then as that got worse, that was really, really painful. But I always said, that would never be me. I am never going to do that…I wish he had been sober during those formative years, but what he’s taught me is, how important it is for me to be sober now during these formative years for my kids.”
Affleck revealed to the New York Times how he began drinking more when his and Garner’s marriage fell apart years back and that his alcoholism also created tension. After ten years of marriage, they both announced a separation in 2015, then finalizing the divorce in 2018.
“Divorce is very painful and alcoholism is very painful,” he shared. “If there’s something that your child is suffering, that’s a level of pain that is just not easily gotten fast, not easily forgiven, not easily forgotten and it’s hard. You’re not going to avoid causing your kids pain, all pain. Pain is part of life. I take some comfort in that.”
“I’m doing my very, very best and I hope that that is- it has to be good enough,” he said. “I have to. I don’t really have a choice. I have to be the man I want to be at this point. I don’t have any more room for failure of that kind.”
Affleck’s latest movie, The Way Back, is set for release on March 6. He plays a widowed, former basketball star who battled addiction and hopes for a career comeback with his new job as a basketball coach at his alma mater.
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