Exes Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Send Daughter Violet Off to College
Over the weekend, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck were photographed having an al fresco dinner with two of their three children at South Bay Mediterranean Kitchen in New Haven, CT.
Their daughter Violet, 18, graduated from high school in May and starts classes soon at Yale University. Their son Fin, 15, was also there for the fun family dinner and a walk in the area.
At one point, the family gathered on the sidewalk, smiling and relaxed. Affleck pulled in Fin for a sweet hug as Garner and Violet looked on happily.
According to a source, the 52-year-old actor “has been very focused on getting Violet ready for move-in. It’s, of course, a huge deal for the whole family, and they’ve all been so excited the last few weeks.”
Harmonious Co-Parenting
Since they separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018, Garner and Affleck have maintained a friendly co-parenting relationship and focused on raising their three children.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published in 2023, Affleck said one of his motivations for shifting his career from acting to producing was the ability to stay in Los Angeles: “I’m divorced. I share custody. I don’t want to go to Austin and New Orleans and Georgia anymore and not see my kids. It just doesn’t work.”
The Argo star continued, “These years are too important. If I miss them, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. And then I thought, ‘OK, well, if I’m in Los Angeles and I’m in an office and I’m doing this work, I can step out for [my kid’s] basketball game or the jazz performance.’ So I protect those things.”
When Affleck married Jennifer Lopez in 2022, all of their five shared children walked Lopez down the aisle. She wrote in her newsletter, “We weren’t only marrying one another; we were marrying these children into a new family. They were the only people we asked to stand up for us in our wedding party. To our great honor and joy, each one did.”
In a Good Morning America appearance in 2021, Affleck said that the only opinion that truly matters to him are those of his children: “My life is better and I’m happier the more I’m around them. The only biography that really means anything is written on the hearts of your kids.”
He continued poignantly, “I’ll be long dead, and someone is going to ask my kids, ‘What was your dad like?’ And that’s when I’ll know what my life was worth.”
