Jennifer Garner is grateful — and adamant on keeping — the balance she has achieved between her work as an actress and her work as a mother.
The Alias alum first became a mom two decades ago when she welcomed daughter Violet, 20, with Ben Affleck, to whom she was married from 2005 to 2018, and with whom she also shares Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14.
Now that she has three official teenagers in the house, the 13 Going on 30 actress has been able to return to acting in a way she only can because her kids have grown up, and she is holding on to it.
© GC ImagesSpeaking with InStyle, Jennifer, who is currently promoting the series The Five-Star weekend, said: "I relate to that feeling of like, 'Okay, I gave everything to mothering. I'm still their mom, I'm not going anywhere, I'm still all-in. I'm also really grateful to have this part of my life back.'"
The Five-Star weekend is based on the bestselling novel by Elin Hilderbrand of the same name, and follows a grief-stricken food blogger who has just lost her husband in a car accident, and invites her best friends from different stages of life to a luxurious Nantucket getaway.
"When I work, I don't apologize to my kids for it," Jennifer then maintained, noting that she does "thank them for being so sweet about it."
© Getty Images"But that's part of life," she continued, adding: "Working hard is part of life, and messing up is part of life. Tripping and falling — there's room for all of it."
Elsewhere in the interview, Jennifer, 54, further reflected on the time she took away from acting to focus on motherhood.
"First of all, when you're in a performance kind of role, you give up a year/year-and-a-half of performance while you are pregnant, having a baby, recovering," she noted, adding: "When my kids were little, I worked so little, and then we had such an upheaval in our family, that I really hardly worked for a long time."
© Getty ImagesJennifer and Ben first separated in 2015, and their divorce was finalized in 2018, though they remain friends and are spotted together with frequency at outings in support of their children.
© Getty Images"I feel lucky because I really come at [acting] from a place of joy," she said, gushing about getting to focus on her craft more again. "I'm not tortured. It's not filling a hole. I just really love to do it. And I love to be around people who love to do it. I was really, really happy when I was working in summer stock and making a hundred bucks a week."
"To have this year and a half where I just indulged [in acting], because this job is very selfish. It's all about your schedule. It's not about what the kids have going on at school. It's not about pickups and drop-offs and making it home for dinner," she went on.
