Ben Affleck Opens Up About Co-parenting With Jennifer Garner & His Children’s Assessment of How He Compares to Their Mom

Oct 15, 2026 by apost team

Ben Affleck’s children have already done the math on how he compares to their mother as a parent — and they did not go easy on him.

“Their mom is spectacular and always makes me feel like I’m coming up a little short,” Affleck told Willie Geist in a preview of his Sunday TODAY interview, laughing. “I’m like, ‘I think I’m doing about 75% as good as your mom?’ And they’re like, ‘Eh, maybe 40?’”

The mother in question is Jennifer Garner, and Affleck’s praise for her has been consistent, specific, and entirely unprompted across multiple recent interviews. In a separate Variety interview published earlier this week, he described his current life in terms that would not have been predicted by the tabloid headlines of recent years. “I work hard, and then I go home and pick up the kids from school. We have dinner if they agree to hang out with me. They’re with me for a week, then with their mom for a week. They have a great thing with their mom, for whom I’m also really, really grateful.”

Affleck, who divorced Garner in 2018 after nearly 13 years of marriage, shares three children with her — Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14. He also briefly considered casting Garner in his new film “Animals” before deciding against it for creative reasons. “In a movie, the illusion has to be the thing,” he told Variety. “And I still want to find something to do with her.”

Garner, for her part, has been equally generous. “He’s wonderful,” she told Entertainment Weekly in July. “He takes care of them. He’s a great partner in that way. And that’s very freeing.”

The 40% assessment, it should be noted, came from the children. Affleck appears to find it both accurate and fair.

The coparenting arrangement Affleck described is, by every available account, one of the more functional in Hollywood — a word that sets a low bar but that, in this case, seems genuinely insufficient. Affleck and Garner have been photographed at school events, sports days, and family dinners together. Their children have been seen at Fenway Park with both parents. Fin and Emme — Garner’s step-daughter and Jennifer Lopez’s daughter — appeared in the same school play, with Affleck, Garner, and Lopez all in attendance.

That last detail speaks to a complexity that Affleck has navigated with more grace than most would have predicted. His marriage to Jennifer Lopez ended in 2025, after two years. The children’s relationship with Lopez, by multiple accounts, has remained warm. “Ben and Jen’s kids are still friends with Lopez’s children,” a source confirmed earlier this year.

What Affleck returned to, in both interviews this week, was a version of life that sounds both ordinary and hard-won. He picks up the kids from school. He makes dinner when they agree to have it with him. He is grateful for their mother. He knows the 75% is generous self-assessment. He says so, laughing, because his children told him.

Garner told Entertainment Weekly that Affleck “has become this incredible coparent” and called the dynamic “very freeing.” Affleck, asked about the same arrangement in Variety, said: “I know things will come up that are hard, and I don’t want to jinx that, but this time in my life as a human being is really wonderful.”

“I don’t want to miss these years,” he added. He picks up the kids from school. He has dinner with them when they agree to it. He calls their mother spectacular. His children gave him 40%. He laughed. He appeared to agree.

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Are you a fan of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner? Do you think their coparenting approach is one of the most admirable things either of them has done? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your family, friends, and other fans out there!