How Jennifer Garner's Split From Ben Affleck Spilled Into Her Professional Life

It is a fact of life that marital troubles and personal issues can always affect a person's professional life and their ability to do their job well. This is true for blue collar workers, government officials, and even movie stars, like Jennifer Garner. The actor was in the middle of shooting the 2016 family comedy "Nine Lives" when she and then-husband Ben Affleck made the decision to file for divorce. The challenges in her personal life led Garner to feel the need to apologize for what she thought was some poor acting on set the following day.

In an excerpt from director Barry Sonnenfeld's new memoir, "Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood," Sonnenfeld recalled how Affleck was "having issues" throughout the duration of filming (via Daily Mail). It was later revealed that Affleck was struggling with alcoholism, and Garner supported him by traveling back and forth between the set in Montreal and her home in Los Angeles. However, the issues took their toll on the marriage, and they made the decision to separate right before Garner's final day of filming.

"Jennifer was a little off. We were in a grand ballroom with hundreds of extras. I took her to the side of the room and asked if everything was okay," Sonnenfeld recalls in his memoir (via Daily Mail). "She apologized for not being at her best. Ben and Jennifer had the night before decided to get a divorce." Sonnenfeld writes that Garner is "a beautiful person inside and out," and that her admission actually led to him having something of a breakdown on set.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck tied the knot in a private ceremony in June 2005, after a year of dating and several years as friends prior to their romance. They share three children: Violet, born in December 2005; Seraphina, born in January 2009; and Samuel, born in February 2012. When she and Affleck made the difficult decision to divorce, Garner was the one who ended up having to console director Barry Sonnenfeld over the news of her split.

According to the excerpt from Sonnenfeld's memoir, he "burst into tears" when she told him (via Daily Mail). "I don't know who was more confused, the 300 extras who wondered what that nice Ms. Garner had said to Mr. Barry to make him so upset, or Jennifer herself who was forced into the role of the calm person after, somehow, I had become the injured party in this discussion," Sonnenfeld writes. Garner reportedly calmed Sonnenfeld down, gently telling him it was "for the best," and the moment left an indelible mark in his memory of her kindness and humanity.

As for Garner and Affleck, the pair have remained committed coparents. Two years after announcing their split, they officially filed for divorce in April 2017, which was then finalized in October 2018. In the years since, they've worked hard to prioritize their kids, even amid Affleck's short-lived high-profile marriage to Jennifer Lopez, who completed a solo divorce filing in August 2024.