Tragic Details About Jennifer Garner

Jennifer Garner has long been regarded as the very personification of sunshine and rainbows. Right from cinema screens down to our Instagram screens, she has acted as a harbinger of happiness for audiences across the world, spreading smiles and good vibes all around. But no matter just how easy being lovable comes to her, the "Alias" star is like every next regular person with their own fair share of tragedies. 

It may be a hard pill to swallow, given the ceaselessly endearing public image she has crafted for herself, but Garner has lived through some seriously trying times — only to come out on the other side a more resilient woman. As she put it to People in 2021 about keeping her home, family, and herself afloat during the pandemic: "I've learned that I'm pretty sturdy. ... I mean I have my moments, but pretty much, I'm really OK." 

From surviving more than one failed marriage to fearing for the safety of her children, and also coping with body-shamers on the loose, Garner has been through some of the lowest lows that come with being a widely scrutinized celebrity. Major moments of distress in her life, such as her excessively publicized divorce from Ben Affleck for instance, were marred by ancillary tragedies that had her paying heavy costs often unavoidable for someone as famous as she. Here's looking back at a few of the toughest challenges Jennifer Garner has had to deal with during her time as a public figure. 

Jennifer Garner lived out the dream of many fangirls when she married '90s heartthrob Scott Foley in 2000. The two actors met on the sets of the WB drama series "Felicity," which turned Foley into a television star and guest-starred Garner, who was then still in the early stages of her career. Sadly, the marriage couldn't last and in three years, Foley and Garner went their separate ways. 

While the split seemingly didn't lead to any bad blood between the two actors, Garner did mention in later years that she should have known better than to get married at 28. "I did marry in my twenties and I found divorce a crushing experience. I thought the divorce statistics would never apply to me. I was beyond heartbroken when they did," she said (via Page Six). 

Fortunately, the dissolution of her first marriage did not deter her from the idea of finding a partner "to commit to and raise kids with." Soon after her divorce from Foley, Garner got together with Ben Affleck.  

The marriage had long been brushed away into the forgotten corners of noughties pop culture before SiriusXM host Andy Cohen retrieved it in 2021 during an interview with Foley. "I mean, we do not keep in contact because she has her own family. I have mine," Foley, who later married Marika Domińczyk, said, revealing that the few times he had interacted with Garner after their divorce had been cordial. 

In one of the most terrifying celebrity stalker stories to come out of Hollywood, Jennifer Garner was tailed for years by an obsessive man. Steven Burky reportedly began pursuing the "Juno" star in 2002 and continued to do so until 2008, when she sought a restraining order against him. 

Garner — pregnant at the time with the second child she shares with Ben Affleck — told the court that Burky had been stalking her for years, sending her "packages and letters containing delusional and paranoid thoughts," per documents obtained by TMZ. An escalation in his harassment of Garner and her family pushed her toward legal recourse. She alleged that the accused turned up at her doorstep with the claim that "God has sent him a vision of her being persecuted in some manner that may result in her death." The court granted Garner a permanent restraining order that forbade Burky from coming within 100 feet of her family and put the accused on a psychiatric hold. 

Shockingly enough, the saga didn't end there. A year later, Burky violated the court order and was found lurking in the vicinity of the nursery school that Garner's daughter Violet attended. He was arrested and was looking at a jail term of four years if a conviction came through. In early 2010, a Los Angeles court found Burky not guilty on grounds of insanity and indefinitely assigned him to California's Patton State Hospital, the BBC reported. 

Jennifer Garner has combated chatter about her body for years. Her career is punctuated with rumors of her sporting a baby bump even during the times that she was not pregnant, with tabloids and social media users discussing her physical appearance with shocking liberty. 

She addressed the issue on TheEllenShow in 2014, saying that even people she knew often congratulated her inaccurately because of how she looked. "I am not pregnant, but I have had three kids and there is a bump. From now on ladies, I will have a bump. And it will be my baby bump," she told the world — flashing her signature genial smile, of course. 

Even years after delivering her third child in 2012, Garner continued to deal with gossip about her body. An Instagram comment that enquired if Garner was pregnant, under a video she posted of herself in overalls in 2020, earned the wrath of Garner's fans — and a benevolent response from the actor herself. "I am 48, have three healthy kids, and am not — never will be — pregnant. We can lay that pupper to rest," Garner wrote, joking that she might actually have been a little indulgent with food during the pandemic instead. 

On the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, she disclosed that following a post-pregnancy regimen that helps many women "bounce right back to that slim hips, no stomach" physique had not worked for her. "That is not my gig." 

When the stars aligned for Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck — who got together in 2004 after their respective breakups — Hollywood became a happier place. As they quickly transitioned from lovers to married partners and then parents, Garner and Affleck made audiences swoon as a rock-solid symbol of love that looked like it could survive the tribulations the showbiz industry often puts couples through. But their fairytale romance was cut short in 2015 when the duo announced their decision to divorce. 

In the intervening years between their split and the official finalization of divorce in 2018, many reasons for Affleck and Garner's breakup were suggested — including the "Gone Girl" star's rumored infidelity. It was widely alleged that Affleck had cheated on Garner with the family's 28-year-old nanny — a claim he denied but she seemingly didn't. "We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny," Garner told Vanity Fair, ruling the nanny out as a motive for the divorce. 

The speculated circumstances of the split earned Affleck the ire of many fans and Garner, the sympathy of others. And while she did make some heartbreaking confessions post-divorce about still loving Affleck, she assured her well-wishers: "No one needs to hate him for me. ... Don't worry—my eyes were wide open during the marriage." As co-parents to their three children, Garner and Affleck have continued to meet in the years since their split. 

In the marriage graveyard that is Hollywood, Jennifer Garner stood in her own league as a faithful believer in the institution of marriage. Unfortunately for the "Yes Day" star, things did not work out as well as she would have liked them to and she did not disguise her disappointment at having gone through two unsuccessful marriages. "It wasn't for the cameras. And it was a huge priority for me to stay in it," she told Vanity Fair after her divorce from Ben Affleck. "It's one of the pains in my life that something I believe in so strongly I've completely failed at twice. You have to have two people to dance a marriage." That the separation was highly publicized, and burdened by speculation around Affleck's infidelity, didn't make things any easier. She went on to detail how difficult the months following her divorce had been, consisting of endless wine and sleepless nights. 

Despite the heartbreaks she suffered in the marriage department, Garner — who has also been linked to actor Michael Vartan and businessman John Miller — was not completely put off the idea of finding love again. When asked by People about any future possibilities of her getting hitched, she said: "I'm so far from it. And I don't know that marriage would need to be a part ... I mean I definitely don't think that I'll be single forever." 

For Jennifer Garner, one of the most troublesome aspects of the years that she was hounded by tabloid rumors and unrelenting paparazzi attention was the undue scrutiny it put her children under. The "Mother's Day" star — whose reputation as a committed mom to Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel precedes her — found it to be a real struggle to keep her kids' lives private and away from the media glare that surrounded them after her divorce from Ben Affleck. 

"For 10 years, there were at the very least six cars and often 20 outside of our house, and outside of school, and at the pediatrician's," Garner said on PBS, recalling how she often had to beg the press to clear the way so she could take her child to the doctor. When she was 5 years old, Garner's daughter apparently wrote a speech with heartbreaking details of what it meant to be a celebrity child being followed around with cameras that looked like guns. In 2013, Garner, joined by actor Halle Berry, approached the court in support of a regulation that would limit the paparazzi attention celebrity kids got. 

In the years since, Garner has continued to safeguard her teen children's privacy militantly, to the extent that she doesn't permit them to use social media, telling them: "When you can show me articles that prove that kids are happier with access to social media, we can have that conversation" (via Daily Mail). 

Heavy is the head that wears the rom-com crown. By virtue of her popular association with the fairytale genre — think "13 Going on 30" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" — Jennifer Garner is widely beloved as an American sweetheart. Her lively press appearances and millions-strong social media have further cemented her happy-go-lucky public image. But, as she told Allure, it's not always easy for her to keep up that megawatt smile. She is, after all, only human. 

"The problem with, 'Oh, she's so nice' is that when I have any kind of boundary, people think of it as much more than it actually is," she said. Like everyone else, Garner has her bad days but having to navigate these regular experiences as a celebrity — especially one who is famous enough to be recognized in public — is hardly easy. "I scowl at people before they can walk up to me. I'm not perfect, and I don't think I'm rude, but I'm not good at being fake. I'm an open book of a person." It's not for nothing that people adore her for her authenticity! 

Garner evidently doesn't let her famous good girl image weigh down on her personal space, however, accepting the crummy phases as willingly as the better ones for the sake of her mental health. Describing her self-care routine to People, she said: "I don't try to be Pollyanna all the time. And I'm gentle with myself." 

Jennifer Garner would rank high up in a list of unproblematic celebrities. But even someone with a persona as agreeable as hers cannot be guaranteed a clean record in an age where the internet documents every slip-up for posterity. The "Alias" star found herself making headlines in 2023, thanks to a resurfaced clip that called attention to a conversation she had with Regina King in 2017. The two actors had appeared on Chelsea Handler's "Dinner Party: My American Experience," when the subject of their families arose. As King opened up about her native Los Angeles background, Garner interjected with a query that was widely deemed controversial: "Do you know where your ancestors are from?" Across social media, netizens slammed Garner for her seemingly racist line of questioning, with many even demanding an apology from her. 

Another time, Garner found herself at loggerheads with the media itself, calling out People magazine for a 2017 cover story titled "Life After Heartbreak" which was published in the aftermath of her split from ex-husband Ben Affleck. In a Facebook post, Garner claimed that she was not involved with the piece, which, using unnamed sources, went into some detail about how she seemed to be coping with the highly publicized divorce. "This isn't a tragedy by any measure, but it does affect me and my family," she wrote, emphasizing: "I did not pose for this cover. I did not participate in or authorize this article." 

Jennifer Garner shines as the film cameras roll but once the director yells cut, the actor goes back to her regular life as a woman who can't pretend. Despite having been a part of the entertainment industry for almost three decades, Garner has not quite settled into being in the public eye. A dedicated family woman beyond the showbiz world, she is not one to feign indifference to her real life as Hollywood stars are often expected to. On the subject of her divorce from Ben Affleck, she told Vanity Fair, "I cannot be driven by the optics of this. I cannot let anger or hurt be my engine," revealing that she had steered clear of media and tabloid reports about herself. 

It seems that unplugging from the speculation that surrounds her — good or bad — has helped Garner live and feel more authentically. "What I think I've learned is that the scrutiny in your private life puts pressure to make something happen," she told CBS, adding that such intense surveillance had the ability to stir up trouble even when there was none. "The public isn't what's hard. What's hard is going through it." For someone like her who is admittedly sensitive to media attention, it must have presumably taken a lot to put herself out there and become an Instagram sensation, no less — and we couldn't be happier for her! 

2024 brought with it the heartbreaking death of Jennifer Garner's father, William Garner. She opened up about it on April 2, 2024, in an Instagram post that left her followers misty-eyed and garnered thousands of tributes for William, who had made the occasional appearance on his famous daughter's Instagram and whom fans had come to know. Garner mentioned that 85-year-old William was surrounded by his family in his final moments and that he went peacefully. "We are grateful for Dad's gentle demeanor and quiet strength. For how he teased with a mischievous smile, and for the way he invented the role of all in, ever patient girl dad," she gushed, alongside an album of family pictures that captured her dad's special moments. 

Their father-daughter relationship seemed to have been a string of wholesome moments, one of them memorably being the time she surprised him with a ride in the car from his childhood — a vintage 1948 Studebaker Champion — for what would come to be his final birthday in 2023. 

After his death, Garner and her mother appeared on "The Today Show," where they both reminisced about their beloved William. On coping with the loss of her husband of 59 years, Pat Garner said, "I was so worried about being a widow. And then one day I had an epiphany: You will be alright, Pat. And I am," before adding just how pleased William would have been to see her on Today.