Ben Affleck Reveals How He Ends His Romantic Relationships In 1999 'Playboy' Interview Amid Jennifer Lopez Divorce
Ben Affleck was pretty transparent about how he handles relationships in a recently resurfaced 'Playboy' interview from 1999.
Affleck, who is currently enduring a public divorce from Jennifer Lopez, spilled details on the context of his decision-making and the dynamic of working out relationship issues — or not working them out at all.
In the resurfaced post featured on 'Reddit,' 'The Accountant 2' star was asked by the men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine whether his "other former girlfriends [are] generally pissed off at him," to which he answered, "Mostly, yeah."
"It's not like I was a womanizer or physically abusive or psychologically abusive or whatever. It's just that these relationships never end well. I think what happens is, I end up wanting to be out of the relationship," Affleck, now 52, explained at the time.
"During the course of a relationship, if you get dissatisfied and unhappy and don't say something, if you don't deal with it right then, it just festers and stays there. So instead of saying, 'Look, don't do that, please don't act this way,' I go along with it until I just don't want to be in the relationship at all," he continued.
"Then I create some incident or do something or just don't call. And then she's pissed," Affleck added. "And I can't necessarily blame her at that point since I've developed such a passive-aggressive rage that I have no sympathy and tell her, 'Well of course I didn't call you. If you weren't such a nagging, shrewish, harpy I'd call you.' "
The Golden Globe Award-winning actor concluded: "But that hopefully is something I'm growing out of."
Affleck's ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow, who dated him on-and-off from 1997 to 2000, told Howard Stern in 2018 why she chose not to marry him.
"You were never in love with him?" Stern asked.
"It's interesting, I think there's certain boyfriends where you are trying to work stuff out, right?" Paltrow, 51, replied. "Like, you're trying to heal certain stuff from your childhood and he was very much a lesson in that way." She also told the broadcaster how Affleck "was not in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend" when they were together, per 'PEOPLE.'
According to the outlet, an insider close to Affleck's ex-wife Jennifer Garner and mother of his three children said the actor "never handled stress well."
"He doesn't have good coping skills. He gets easily frustrated and tends to be moody. When he's relaxed and in a good mood, it's amazing to be around him," the source claimed. "But more often, he's upset or frustrated."
Garner and Affleck were married from 2004 and announced their split in 2015. The 'New York Post' reports they didn't file for divorce until 2017.
After Affleck's candid and vulnerable confession resurfaced, fans tied his comments to his public split from Lopez.
The 55-year-old actress and entertainer recently shared a cryptic post after she filed for divorce from her now-estranged husband.
On Saturday, the "On the Floor" singer took to Instagram to pen a simple: "Oh, it was a summer."
The photo dump also featured a slide which read: "Everything is unfolding in divine order."
Per reports, Lopez listed April 26 as her official date of separation from Affleck and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split in court documents. The 'Atlas' star has since requested to drop Affleck's last name and change her name back to Jennifer Lynn Lopez.
