Jennifer Garner has been spending a lot of time with her ex-husband Ben Affleck after he split from his second wife Jennifer Lopez last year.
This week Daily Mail exclusively revealed the two were seen embracing tenderly while taking two of their children Fin, 16, and Sam, 13, paintballing in Los Angeles.
Their eldest, 19-year-old Violet, is away studying at Yale.
Garner has not been seen with her on-and-off again boyfriend John Miller since February 20.
And Affleck, a renowned cigarette and donut aficionado, has instead been seen training hard in LA.
In a telling development, Daily Mail has now learned Garner is ‘deathly afraid of falling back in love’ with Ben.
Garner still has ‘trust issues’ with the 52-year-old after he slept with their children’s nanny, Christine Ouzounian, now 37, a decade ago.
‘She loves Ben but is worried that he will crush her all over again,’ the source said.
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Jennifer Garner has been spending a lot of time with her ex-husband Ben Affleck after he divorced his second wife Jennifer Lopez. Now DailyMail.com has learned that Garner is ‘afraid’ to fall back in love with Ben as she has ‘trust issues’; Ben and Jen seen at paintball on March 2
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After all, Ben slept with their kids’ nanny Christine Ouzounian – who is now 37-years-old – 10 years ago. ‘She loves Ben but is worried that he will crush her all over again,’ a source told DailyMail.com
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‘She doesn’t want to heal another broken heart because it is just too much drama, plus she does not want their kids to see round two of their mom in a bad place with their dad.
‘So much could go wrong if they reunite.’
In March 2016, Garner detailed to Vanity Fair how her heart was ‘tender’ after her 10-year marriage to Ben crumbled.
While Ben’s romance with the nanny didn’t end their marriage, it ‘hurt’, she said.
Jennifer and Ben, who have three children together – Violet, Seraphina and Samuel – split in June 2015.
Garner also told told Vanity Fair she was committed as much as she could be.
‘It was a real marriage,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t for the cameras. And it was a huge priority for me to stay in it. And that did not work.’
But the Daredevil actress asked people to not be too hard on Ben. ‘No one needs to hate him for me. I don’t hate him. Certainly we don’t have to beat the guy up,’ she said.
‘Don’t worry—my eyes were wide open during the marriage. I’m taking good care of myself.’
However, her heartbreak was obvious.
‘I didn’t marry the big fat movie star; I married him,’ she said. ‘And I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can’t have these three babies and so much of what we had.
‘He’s the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He’s the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous. He’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.’
But she was not about to turn on the man she hoped to spend the rest of her life with.
‘Of course this is not what I imagined when I ran down the beach, but it is where I am,’ Jennifer confessed. ‘We still have to help each other get through this.’
Surprising moment Ben Affleck pulls Jennifer Garner in close
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‘She doesn’t want to heal another broken heart because it is just too much drama, plus she does not want their kids to see round two of their mom in a bad place with their dad. So much could go wrong if they reunite,’ the source added; seen in 2014
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In March 2016 Garner gave telling quotes to Vanity Fair magazine about how her heart was ‘tender’ after her marriage to Ben crumbled; seen in 2016
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner volunteer at Midnight Mission
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EXCLUSIVE
Bombshell video of sexy clinch that suggests Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck could be BACK ON… as insiders declare: ‘She’s the love of his life’
As far as moving on, she said she has to get on with it. ‘It’s not Ben’s job to make me happy. The main thing is these kids—and we’re completely in line with what we hope for them.
‘Sure, I lost the dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter’s wedding. But you should see their faces when he walks through the door. And if you see your kids love someone so purely and wholly, then you’re going to be friends with that person.’
As far as the pressure from fans to get back together with Ben, she said she gets it: ‘When Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt broke up, I was dying to see something that said they were getting back together.’
She ended the interview by admitting that her heart was ‘a little on the tender side right now.’
In late February, Affleck and Lopez were officially declared single.
The On The Floor hitmaker, 55, and the Gone Girl actor, 52, settled their divorce on January 6, however, court documents confirmed the marriage wasn’t legally dissolved until February 21.
The exes rekindled their romance in 2021 and got married in 2022, but called it quits in 2024.
Jennifer filed for divorce on August 20 – the date of their second wedding anniversary – and cited ‘irreconcilable differences’.
