Jennifer Garner and ex-husband Ben Affleck are proud parents to three children – but the Alias star has explained that she is no longer able to go to watch her kids practice at sport
Jennifer Garner has explained why she is banned from watching her kids at sport practice(Image: Getty)
Jennifer Garner has been banned from her own children’s sport events due to her fame. The 54-year-old actress is a proud mum of three, sharing Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and 14-year-old Samuel with ex-husband Ben Affleck, 53.
The Golden Globe award-winning star has appeared in major TV shows including Felicity, Alias and recent hit The Five-Star Weekend. She has also appeared in smash hit films including Juno, 13 Going On 30, and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Her star power hit new highs when she entered into a marriage with Batman actor Ben – who had previously been in an astronomically high profile romance with singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. The marriage brought with it a large amount of press attention – and while Jen and Ben divorced in 2018, the TV and film star has continued to be of interest to fans and the media.
Jennifer has now revealed that the constant interest in her life has had a detrimental effect on her abilities to support her children – revealing she can no longer watch them at football practice as it can be hazardous. Opening up on the Shut Up Evan podcast, she said: “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.
“We were trying to have our little one play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars coming. So it wasn’t just about us. It was just an industry that had gotten out of control.
“If you show up and you’re trying to get into the paediatrician and you have a sick kid on your shoulder and you’re scared and you can’t get into the door because you’re blocked by photographers, there’s something wrong with that, and the kids are paying the price.”
She continued: “It felt like, ‘Poor little me, my poor little kids who have everything in the world,’ but it was a danger to everyone around us.”
Jen went on to explain that there are some paparazzi photographers that have followed her throughout her career – and as a result she is able to have a rapport with them. She explained: “I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy.
“I mean, I’ve done anything to ask him to leave. And at the same time, we have an odd respect for each other. I don’t know… we’ve had some really real life moments together. I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was going to hurt me, and I ran to him because I knew him and trusted him, and I knew that he and I would be okay.
“Like, there’s kind of a Stockholm syndrome thing. And at the same time, I’ve called the cops on him a million times and been like, ‘Can you please just give me a walk around the block with my kids and my dog?’ “
Jennifer recently made her return to the Apple TV show The Last Thing He Told Me. The second season of the series showed Jennifer’s character, Hannah Hall, supporting Angourie Rice’s character Bailey Michaels, who is her on-screen stepdaughter.
The star explained that she drew on her own experience as a mother to bring authenticity to her role. She told Glamour magazine in February: “Well, I think you take everything that you are, everything that you have experienced, into whatever role you do.
“And I don’t think you have to have been a parent to play a parent… Suddenly she’s on her own with this stepdaughter and trying her hardest, but she does absolutely everything wrong. What she doesn’t know is that that’s so normal with a teenager… So yeah, the ways my parenthood informed the role is just the capacity for love.”
She also explained why her own children refuse to watch her TV and film roles. Jen said: “They don’t really love watching me on screen. They really want me to be mum… If they have seen it, they haven’t told me.”
She added that she has received their help when learning lines at home, but said: “They’re very, very involved… But watching me cry or fight or be in danger is less appealing to them.”
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