Jennifer Garner Shares Why Co-Parenting With Ben Affleck Includes "a Little Bit of Loss"

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck didn't set out to be a shining example of post-split possibility, but here they are.

The actors have now been exes for longer than they were married and, while they were always on the same page about putting their children first, it was in no way easy to put everything that had come before aside to achieve that goal.

And yet, they eventually did, and now you may as well call them consciously uncoupled.

"Happy Father’s Day to 3 people’s favorite landing spot," Garner wrote in tribute to Affleck last June, posting a throwback photo of the Argo star holding one of their babies.

Married for almost 10 years before announcing in June 2015 that they were separated and planning to divorce, the pair started looking so at ease on family outings that they sparked reconciliation rumors after Affleck and Jennifer Lopez started divorce proceedings in 2024.

But Affleck and Garner are very supportive of each other and remain close after going through a lot to get to this place in their relationship.

"You have to be smart about what you can and can’t handle, and I could not handle what was 'out there,'" Garner, who's turning 54 on April 17, told Marie Claire U.K. earlier this year, referring to what was said about their split when it was happening. But it wasn't the stories that were hard, she continued, "The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard."

But, she noted, "Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends.”

Though even now, their situation still has its pluses and minuses when it comes to parenting under respective roofs.

Last year, Affleck, 53, called himself (not for the first time) "really lucky" to have a "really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner," telling GQ in January 2025 that she's "wonderful and great and we work together well."

And Garner—who, incidentally, has been dating boyfriend John Miller since 2018—has acknowledged how her perspective has shifted regarding what she still has with Affleck, versus what she lost in the divorce.

"When our kids get married, we’ll dance, I know that now,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, referring to how she told Vanity Fair in 2016 that her dream of dancing with the love of her life at her daughter's wedding had been dashed. “We’ll boogaloo and have a great time. I don’t worry about that anymore."

Mind you, by the time he talked to Stern, Affleck had reunited with Lopez almost 20 years after their first engagement ended, proving that anything was possible. Almost as quickly, however, they demonstrated why do-overs aren't always a good idea and their marriage ended after two years.

But on the bright side, Garner-Affleck shippers had new fuel for that fire. 

Which even Garner gets, having rooted for other celebrity exes in the past. "When Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt broke up," she told Vanity Fair in 2016, "I was dying to see something that said they were getting back together."

All the joint graduations, school plays, holidays, and paintball outings in the world may not ever be a sign of Affleck and Garner giving romance another go, but the way they've made this chapter of their lives work for their children has always been worthy of applause.

For more proof that all is not ever really lost, see more of the friendliest celebrity exes: