Ben Affleck got alcohol addiction as he felt 'trapped' in marriage to Jennifer Garner

This is possibly the first time that Ben Affleck has opened up about his divorce with Jennifer Garner and alcohol addiction that took a while for him to get out of. 

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner posed as a happy couple for years and share children together but not all was hunky dory at their residence as the last few years of their marriage took a toll on both of them and the former even soaked himself in alcohol. Ben appeared at The Howard Stern Show and said, "Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped."

Ben and Jennifer Garner’s 2017 divorce was a long time coming as he revealed, "I was like, ‘I can't leave because of my kids, but I'm not happy, what do I do?' And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution." The former couple eventually realised that the marriage was doing neither of them any good and that they didn’t want their relationship to "be the model that our kids see of marriage."

He added, "We had a marriage that didn't work. This happens. She's somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn't be married any longer. We did it amicably. We did our best. Did we have moments of tension? Did we have disagreements over custody? Was stuff difficult for us? Did we get angry? Yes, but fundamentally it was always underpinned with a respect."

On his addiction, Ben said, "The cure for addiction is suffering, you suffer enough that something inside you goes, ‘I'm done’. I'm lucky because I hit that point before I lost the things that were most important. Not my career or money—it was my relationship with my kids." Ben Affleck's ex Jennifer Garner reacts to his and Jennifer Lopez's romance

And he believes that if he was still with Jennifer, he would "probably still be drinking."

The Hollywood actor went to rehab several times post the divorce and he doesn’t think he’s “cured” but he has "not wanted to drink once." 

Ben Affleck is now with Jennifer Lopez. They look happy together and are often seen doing family outings with his kids (he shares with Garner) and JLo’s kids (she shares with Mark). A timeline of Jennifer Lopez & Ben Affleck’s relationship from scratch.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Garner and Ben have maintained an amicable friendship following their divorce.