Ben Affleck opened up for the first time about losing his parents, Tim and Chris Affleck, just two months apart in a devastating turn of events for the family.
While Chris passed away from pancreatic cancer in June, just two days after seeing her grandchild graduate high school, Tim died in April from an undisclosed cause.
Looking back
© FilmMagicBen revealed on Kerry Washington's Street You Grew Up On podcast that he had been re-examining his childhood and his relationships with his parents in the wake of their deaths. "My parents just died. Both of them. In April, and in June," the actor began. "It's sort of a big thing, and it's caused me to start thinking about my own childhood in ways that have been a little bit different."
"I've certainly learned to even more deeply appreciate my mom," Ben continued. "And really value and see what she did and what the sacrifice and commitment that she made and how complete it was."
© Getty ImagesThe father of three explained that he had been reading his mother's letters to her parents from well before she became a wife and a mother. "It was really weird for me to read these letters, first of all as this young woman, full of life and ambition and dreams and not sure, 'Oh, maybe I'll be a social worker, maybe I'll be a teacher, there's these protests,'" he said.
"But of course, the thing that struck me was: This has nothing to do with me. This woman had her own whole life for 30 years that had zero to do with me."
Chris' sacrifice
Ben shared that Chris made him and his younger brother, Casey, the center of her life, despite working long hours and coming home to care for her family.
"She was a teacher; she worked really hard. She taught elementary school in public school. She taught 5th and 6th grade. She'd finish at 2:30, but she never came home until about 5:30 or 6," he recalled.
© Ron Galella Collection via Getty"Then she came home and did everything, you know? And there I was, probably a pain in the [expletive], outside, didn't wanna come in, complaining, whatever it was, hard to wrangle, me and my brother."
"And it really struck me, really for the first time, that I had taken for granted [what she did], probably in a way that she wants, in a way I want my children to take for granted." Ben shares his kids Violet, 20, Fin, 17 and Samuel, 14, with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner.
Inside his parents' divorce
© Ron Galella Collection via GettyThe 54-year-old revealed that Chris had a tough time when her husband Tim's alcoholism grew unmanageable. "She should have happiness and love," he said. "[At] the time that we're talking about, my dad was kind of in bad shape and sort of getting worse; he didn't get a job, he drank too much, all that kind of stuff, angry, resentful." Ben admitted that when his parents finally got divorced, he was "so happy".
After the divorce, Chris raised Ben and Casey in Massachusetts, while Tim moved to California and got sober, before rebuilding his relationship with his sons.
