Jennifer Garner stepped out for lunch with her eldest child, Violet Affleck, on July 30, with the mother-daughter duo coordinating in chic casual looks as they enjoyed time together before Affleck, 20, returns to her studies at Yale.
On July 30, Garner and her lookalike daughter Violet stepped out for a rare lunch outing together, smiling as they walked side by side in photos obtained by People, with the actress wearing a red patterned blouse, denim skirt, and black sandals, while Violet wore a printed maxidress and sneakers, carrying a bright blue purse.
Violet, 20, had her facemask handy, but for a few moments she had it off, and it looked like they had a sweet time together, walking side by side with drinks and shopping bags.
Violet is the eldest of Garner and Ben’s three children, which include Fin, 17, and Samuel, 13.
Garner and ex-husband Ben Affleck have remained amicable co-parents since splitting in 2015 and finalizing their divorce three years later.
Since separating, the two have remained amicable co-parents, often praising one another in interviews.
Ben was asked specifically about Violet, who testified at the United Nations in September 2025.
“I could not be more proud of my children,”
he said in an Access Hollywood interview.
“I can’t even tell you.”
Of Violet, he added that she “takes after her mom. She’s spectacular. And I’m very lucky that I’ve got a great partner and that we got great kids.
It’s the joy of my life and I’m just very, very lucky.
And it makes me happy every day.”
Ben also told GQ in April 2025 that “I’m really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner, the kids’ mom, who’s wonderful and great and we work together well.”
Garner has been open about her parenting philosophy as her children have matured.
“It’s more about parenting with a button on my mouth,” she explained to Marie Claire UK. “You have to let them grow up and make their choices. You don’t get to control it.”
She described her children as “so cool,” while noting that her parenting approach has “shifted” as they get older.
In March 2021, Garner told The Hollywood Reporter, “Violet’s hyper-articulate—she is Ben Affleck’s daughter.” When she was a child, Garner added, Violet “stood up on a chair in a little velvet dress, with her hair a bit back and her glasses on, and she didn’t say her R’s right, and she said [of paparazzi intrusion], ‘We didn’t ask for this. We don’t want these cameras, they’re scary. The men are scary, they knock each other over and it’s hard to feel like a kid when you’re being chased.'”
Violet has already distinguished herself at Yale with her academic work.
In May 2025, she published “A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles” in the Yale Global Health Review.
In the piece, Violet drew comparisons between the Los Angeles wildfires that ravaged through the Pacific Palisades in January and the societal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including rare personal insight into her family dynamic, describing her mom as “shell-shocked” and “astonished” by the devastating fires. “I was surprised at her surprise,” Violet wrote in the essay.
On September 23, she addressed the United Nations on the subject of air pollution and the need for masking to prevent the spread of long COVID.
Garner told People in 2024 of her trio that “They’re really solid right now. I’m just watching them in this new phase of life where they’re figuring out who they’re going to be and what they’re going to study. And I’m so interested in them. All the time, I’m interested in everything about them.”
Violet is set to return to Yale when the fall semester begins.