Ben Affleck is opening up about how he navigates life in the public eye.
Sitting down on Kevin Hart’s Peacock series Hart to Heart this week, Ben — who is often photographed looking less than happy out and about — got candid about how he doesn’t like “a lot of attention.”
Describing himself as “a little bit shy,” Ben said, “People see me, and they're like, ‘Why's this dude always mad?’ Because somebody has their camera and sticks it in my face, and I'm like, ‘OK, here we go.’”
Referring to his viral so-called “sad face” in more detail, Ben said that he does not enjoy being photographed when he’s in public with his kids.
Ben shares three kids — Violet, 18, Fin, 15, and Samuel, 12 — with his ex, Jennifer Garner. He and his wife, Jennifer Lopez, are raising their kids together as a blended family.
“I don't mind you taking my picture at a club, a premiere, whatever. My wife, I don't give a fuck. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. I don't notice you,” he said before adding, “My children, that's a different thing.”
Ben went on to discuss J.Lo’s extreme level of fame. “We went somewhere with [Jennifer] — I can’t remember because she’s so famous… People love her. And she really represents something important to people,” he said.
“[To me,] people are like, ‘Hey, I like your movie,’ and then they’re like ‘AHHHH! J.LO!'” he continued.
Ben’s comments come months after Jen said that the couple both have “PTSD” when it comes to their public relationship, with the pair having previously split back in 2004 due to the intense public scrutiny they faced at the time.
In fact, Ben had previously told Jennifer that he initially wanted to keep their relationship away from social media when they had first started to rekindle things.
“Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’” he said in her Prime Video documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
Jen also said in the film of her very public career, “I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this. But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I made... He doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.”