Ben Affleck says dating is barely on his radar two years after his split from Jennifer Lopez.
The Oscar winner, 54, made the blunt admission Thursday night at the New York premiere of his new film “Animals,” telling Entertainment Tonight that his schedule leaves almost no opening for romance. “There’s not a lot of room. I’m not running around,” he said. “It’s just not a big priority in my life.”
Affleck insisted he is content with where he stands. “I’m good and happy,” he said. He laid out a hierarchy that puts fatherhood and career above everything else. “I know what my priorities are. You can’t have two things that are the most important in your life,” he explained. “For me, that’s the kids. So that’s what that is. And then I have my work, which I love.”
The “Argo” director kept the door cracked for whatever comes next. “I’m where I’m at, and I’m great, and who knows what adventures life will bring,” he added. “I’m open to it, but I’m not trying to chase anything.”
The conversation took a sharper turn when reporter Kevin Frazier brought up a claim Ana Navarro had made days earlier on “The View.” Navarro, 54, said she had tried to set Affleck up with Shakira after both stars found themselves single in 2024.
“I hear s–t like that, honestly, first from people like you,” Affleck fired back. “I never heard that in my whole life. People gossip. Stuff gets made up.” He drove the point home flatly: “I don’t get set up.”
Navarro had laid out her matchmaking tale on Monday’s broadcast. “I was at a Shakira concert in Miami, and Matt Damon was there with his wife and his girls. And Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are best friends,” she said. “And it had just come out that J.Lo and Ben Affleck were breaking up. And Shakira had broken up with her husband.”
She recalled Damon pumping the brakes. “Matt Damon said that could be complicated,” Navarro continued, noting Lopez and Shakira’s friendship. “But now enough time has passed where I think Ben Affleck needs to give Shakira [a call], and Shakira needs to give Ben Affleck [a call].”
Affleck’s dating history has become fodder for family teasing too. During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week, he revealed his three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner — Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14 — are not shy about roasting his romantic track record.
“They’ll talk about their friends and the drama and their relationships,” Affleck said. When he tried to offer guidance, one of his kids cut him down with a single line: “Oh, like you’re the expert on relationships?”
The “Daredevil” co-stars Affleck and Garner married in 2005, separated a decade later, and finalized their divorce in 2018. Affleck’s reunion with Lopez — whom he first became engaged to back in 2002 — produced a 2022 wedding and a second divorce finalized by January 2025. His other public relationships have included actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Ana de Armas.
Affleck’s Thursday remarks mark his most direct comments on his romantic status since the Lopez split, framing himself as deliberately stationary rather than searching.