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Ben Affleck makes brave confession about sobriety and Jennifer Garner divorce

The former Hollywood couple split in 2015

jennifer garner ben affleck
Sharnaz Shahid
Deputy Online Editor
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Ben Affleck has once again touched upon his struggles with alcoholism in a candid roundtable with fellow Hollywood stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Delroy Lindo, Gary Oldman, John David Washington and Steven Yeun.

During the raw conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor - who shares three young children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner - revealed that his real-life experience of being a recovering alcoholic helped shape his career whilst making a comment on his divorce from Jennifer.

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"I'm a recovering alcoholic and I played an alcoholic in the movie," he said of his latest role in The Way Back. "It's really about grief and losing a child, which, thank God, I have not experienced, and is probably the worst thing you can experience. But also, a lot of it is about alcoholism.

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"Alcoholism, in and of itself, and compulsive behaviour, are not inherently super interesting, but what is sometimes interesting is what you discover about yourself in the course of recovery and trying to figure out what went wrong, how to fix it, how you want your life to look and what kind of ethics you want to live by.

"So yes, I'm an alcoholic. Yes, I had a relapse. Yes, I went into recovery again. And then I went and did that movie.

"But for me, the movie was much more about the fact that - whether it's having lived enough years, having seen enough ups and downs, having had children and divorce - I'm at a point now in my life where I have sufficient life experience to bring to a role to make it really interesting for me."

jennifer garner ben affleck split© Photo: Getty Images

Ben and Jennifer Garner split in 2015

He added: "I didn't have to do research for the alcoholism aspect of the movie - that was covered. It was the Daniel Day-Lewis approach to that!"

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In 2015, Both Jennifer and Ben shocked fans when they announced their intention to divorce after ten years of marriage - they have since kept their family life private. Despite parting ways six years ago, the former couple have remained on the best of terms as they co-parent their three children; Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and eight-year-old Samuel.

The actor remarked: "I have three children I want to spend time with, I have a life that I really enjoy, and I want to really love my work and tell these kinds of stories, with characters that are as rich as the ones that you all portrayed."

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