Ben Affleck Reveals The 'Biggest Regret' Of His Life
Ben Affleck may be one of the biggest stars in the world, but he's still human. Like any other human being, Affleck has regrets. He recently opened up about the thing he regrets most in an interview with The New York Times.
Affleck's marriage to actress Jennifer Garner ended in 2018 after the couple had been separated for years. That same year, he found himself in rehab — for the third time. While he still feels guilt over the end of the marriage, he said that he has learned to move past shame. "The biggest regret of my life is this divorce," he said. "Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It's just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing."
Ben Affleck's struggle with alcoholism took a toll on his marriage
Affleck revealed that the marriage was troubled in part because of his problems with alcohol. "People with compulsive behavior, and I am one, have this kind of basic discomfort all the time that they're trying to make go away," he said of his battle with alcoholism. "You're trying to make yourself feel better... But that ends up making your life worse. Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can't break."
He added that his heavy drinking added to the tension with Garner, with whom he has three children. "I drank relatively normally for a long time," said Affleck. "What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart... My drinking, of course, created more marital problems."
While Affleck can't undo the past, he's working hard to put his mistakes behind him and to get his career on track. "It's not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures — the relapses — and beat myself up," said Affleck. "I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you've got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward."