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Jennifer Garner believes motherhood is “a gift” – despite the trials and tribulations that come with co-parenting in the spotlight with ex Ben Affleck.
During Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, the actress bonded with Sheryl Lee Ralph over how they’ve both been able to give their children a “normal life” while being in the public eye.
“We have so many things in common. With all the celebrity and all of that, I feel like I have a very normal life, and I think you have that similar sort of vibe. And we love our kids,” Ralph, 66, said, to which Garner, 51, responded, “And all the mess of parenting. It’s a gift.”
Garner shares three children with Affleck – Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11 – while Ralph is mom to Ivy-Victoria, 28, and Etienne Maurice, 31, with ex-husband Eric Maurice.
Garner further agreed with Ralph when the “Dreamgirls” star said that maintaining a “healthy relationship” with her ex-husband was “difficult” with the “spotlight” on her “all the time.”
As previously reported, Garner said she was admittedly a “nightmare” during her early motherhood days with daughter Violet.
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“I was such a first-time mom,” the “Alias” star told Allure in May, jokingly adding that her daughter “didn’t have a shot.”
“She couldn’t have a free thought — I was all over her. I was a nightmare for everyone around me.”
The actress didn’t elaborate on her current co-parenting relationship with Affleck, but did divulge that her children prefer to watch Affleck’s movies over her own.
“They don’t mind watching their dad, but they kind of want me to be their mom,” she elaborated. “They don’t want to see me upset and women cry more in what we do. And they don’t really want to see me in a romantic thing.”
Affleck, 50, also spoke on his children’s taste in films during a March interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Explaining that the kids love to “make fun of” Affleck, he said that they find “the whole thing kind of preposterous.”
Garner and the “Good Will Hunting” star were married for 10 years before separating in 2015. The “Air” star went on to wed Jennifer Lopez, 53, in July 2022 after they were reconnected nearly two decades after they first dated.
Meanwhile, Garner has been seeing CaliBurger CEO John Miller in on and off since 2018.
