Ben Affleck And Jennifer Garner's Relationship Timeline
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have quite the love story. Unfortunately, as most know, what they don't have is a happy ending.
Although the actors established a friendly connection with one another immediately when they first met on the set of "Pearl Harbor" in summer 2000 and ultimately tied the knot and created a beautiful family together, their relationship came crashing down in 2015 amid rumors of infidelity and substance abuse.
After working together on a number of different projects, including 2002's "Daredevil" and 2003's "Dinner For Five," when they were both in relationships with other people, Affleck admitted they had fallen in love.
"We fell in love on 'Daredevil,'" he told Playboy, via Insider. "By the way, she won most of the fights in the movie, which was a pretty good predictor of what would happen down the road — my wife, holding swords and beating the living sh-t out of me."
Although Garner was married to Scott Foley when she and Affleck first met, the two of them split in 2003, and in 2004, Affleck ended his engagement to Jennifer Lopez.
Months after Affleck and Lopez's split, he and Garner made their first appearance as a couple at the 2004 World Series.
As their relationship continued, Garner and Affleck got engaged in April 2005 and married in June of that same year. Then, in December 2005, Garner gave birth to their first child, daughter Violet. In the years that followed, Garner and Affleck welcomed daughter Seraphina in January 2009 and son Samuel in February 2012.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2015
In July 2015, as reported by Insider, Affleck faced allegations of infidelity after reportedly leaving Garner amid a family vacation and traveling to Las Vegas with their nanny, Christine Ouzounian. Although Affleck quickly shot down the claims of a romance with Ouzounian, via his rep, labeling an Us Weekly report as "shameful," he and Garner confirmed plans for divorce the following month.
"After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce. We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children whose privacy we ask to be respected during this difficult time. This will be our only comment on this private, family matter. Thank you for understanding," they said in a joint statement to People (via The Wrap).
While Affleck and Garner were rumored to be working through their issues in early 2017, they ultimately filed for divorce in April 2017, and, months later, Affleck was rumored to have moved on from their marriage with "Saturday Night Live" producer Lindsay Shookus, who he dated for about a year.
In October 2018, Affleck's divorce from Garner was finalized, and two years later, in February 2020, Affleck told the The New York Times his divorce was his "biggest regret."