Jennifer Garner Shares The Heavy Toll Fame Takes On Her Kids: They're 'Paying The Price'

Jennifer Garner has opened up about the chaotic and invasive paparazzi culture of the early 2000s, which impacted her kids' lives so much that she once testified in support of a law aimed at protecting children from it. Garner appeared on Netflix's "Shut Up Evan" podcast in July and, while still acknowledging her privilege as a celebrity, recalled the "totally ludicrous" behavior of the paparazzi when her kids were younger. According to her, it was not only an invasion of privacy but a danger to everyone in her vicinity. "If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would go through the red behind me. They would drive up onto people's lawns, even on a hillside," she said.

Garner recalled that the paparazzi also impacted her kids' social lives in a variety of ways, like when they disrupted the children's soccer games so much that her family was asked to leave the league. They also could've impacted her kids' health in serious ways. She remembered trying to take a sick child of hers to a pediatrician, but being unable to get through the door due to the crowding of countless photographers. "There's something wrong with that, and the kids are paying the price," the "13 Going on 30" star explained.

According to Garner, her kids and their friends weren't even safe on school property. "Kids were getting knocked over coming out of preschool by photographers who were so hungry to get to me or Ben, trying to get to our kids," Garner exclaimed. She added that, despite living around very famous people like her ex-husband, Ben Affleck, and his best friend, Matt Damon, the paparazzi would zero in on her and the children. "They wouldn't follow Ben. They wouldn't follow Matt Damon," she said. "They wouldn't. They were like, 'There's the chick with the kids.'"

Jennifer Garner knows that dealing with paparazzi is sometimes the cost of celebrity and the lavish life she has. Thankfully, things have somewhat improved for her, especially as her kids have gotten older. Garner told "Shut Up Evan" host Evan Ross Katz that she really only has two photographers who still follow her consistently, which makes sense considering her kids have aged a bit and her divorce from Ben Affleck has long been finalized.

Garner has even developed a strange relationship of sorts, to say the least, with one paparazzo who has been assigned to her for more than two decades. "I've done anything to ask him to leave, and at the same time, we have an odd respect for each other," the "Alias" star said. "We've had some really real life moments together." She's even turned to him for help from time to time.

"I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was going to hurt me, and I ran to [the photographer] because I knew him and trusted him," Garner explained. She described the dynamic as a bit like "Stockholm syndrome," the psychological concept in which a kidnapped person or abuse victim supposedly develops a bond with or positive feelings for their abuser to cope with the situation. Although Garner might have some respect for her longtime paparazzo, she nonetheless made it clear that she's "called the cops on him a million times," so some things never change.