Jennifer Garner 'Panicked' When She & Ben Affleck First Divorced Over One Major Fear

Jennifer Garner may be an A-list celebrity, but the one thing that left her shocked after her divorce is something many of us can relate to. After a decade of marriage, Garner and Ben Affleck called it quits in 2015. The former couple has three children together, 13-year-old Samuel, 17-year-old Fin, and 20-year-old Violet. On a recent episode of the "Aspire with Emma Grede" podcast, Garner opened up about the reason parenting without Affleck by her side made her "panic."

"I panicked when I was first out of my marriage..." Garner told Grede on the August 25 episode. She explained, "I had taken such a step back in my work. I was suddenly like, 'Wait a minute. I have to take care of myself. I have to take care of these kids.'" As someone who had never given a lot of thought to money, I need to be an earner here."

According to Garner, the Golden Globe-winner "didn't get some huge payout" when she and Affleck split. In 2017, she became a cofounder of baby food brand Once Upon a Farm in hopes of making money. It is now reportedly worth $724 million, so it's safe to say Garner succeeded at her goal.

Money worries were, of course, not the only thorny element of Jennifer Garner's divorce. Fame only complicated matters for the former couple navigating their split. Back in January, Garner spoke to Marie Claire. "You have to be smart about what you can and can't handle, and I could not handle what was out there. But what was out there was not what was hard," she explained, noting, "The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard."

It's clear that the breakup was hard for Ben Affleck, too. In fact, he later spoke about regretting his divorce from Garner. These days, though, things are happy between the former couple. "I'm able to co-parent at this point in time with peace and equanimity and a partnership that I didn't know I would ever get back to," Garner said, noting, "I think it's important for women to know, when they think, 'Oh, I'll never see that, I'll never have that feeling, I'll never be friends with this person again' [that] time is the opportunity. Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends." Evidently, Garner's life today proves that even the hardest parts of divorce are just chapters in a larger story.