Ben Affleck says his own children now weaponize his romantic history against him.
The actor, 54, told Jimmy Kimmel during a Thursday appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! That his three kids with ex-wife Jennifer Garner — Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14 — have developed a habit of roasting his relationship credentials whenever he attempts parental guidance. Affleck and Garner were married from 2005 to 2018, having announced their separation in June 2015 before finalizing the divorce three years later.
The mockery follows him outside the house. Affleck recalled browsing a bookshop with one of his children when they spotted a title by a French author called I’m Sorry for Everything. “Oh, look, Dad, it’s your autobiography,” the kid deadpanned.
Dinner table conversations have become minefields. “Now, I, like, give advice or try to talk to them like a parent, as you do… But what I’ve found is that now it’s not only one teenager rolling their eyes,” Affleck told Kimmel. He described launching into relationship wisdom only to catch his children exchanging glances. “And I realize I’m the caricature in this story. I see them be like, ‘Dad is saying this and that…'”
He laughed and asked, “Why am I the bad guy?” before conceding, “I couldn’t imagine I wouldn’t be the cool dad.”
Seraphina, 17, landed what Affleck presented as the sharpest blow. He had begun weighing in on a friend’s relationship — “You know, well, the thing about that relationship there with that person…” — when his daughter cut him off. “The 17-year-old just turns to me and goes, ‘Oh, like you’re the expert on relationships.'”
Affleck’s romantic history has indeed played out publicly. After splitting from Garner, he reignited his relationship with Jennifer Lopez in 2021; the pair had previously been engaged between 2002 and 2004. Affleck and Lopez, 57, married in July 2022, but Lopez filed for divorce in August 2024 and the split was finalized in February 2025.
Despite providing ample material for his children’s jokes, Affleck and Garner have established an amicable co-parenting dynamic. Garner addressed the arrangement in a July interview. “My kids are a little bigger [now]. Their dad – ex-husband – has become this incredible coparent,” she said. She added that she and a business partner “produce things that we control and are able to help keep in L.A…. I love making movies anywhere, but I really want to make movies at home.”
Affleck’s Kimmel appearance came as he continues navigating both public scrutiny of his personal life and the ordinary humiliations of parenting teenagers who have access to the entire internet.