People rallying behind Jennifer Garner after Ben Affleck blamed his drinking problem on their marriage

There’s a reason the personal life of Ben Affleck has been a subject of tabloid fascination for decades now. Since the 2015 dissolution of his fairytale marriage with Jennifer Garner in particular, Affleck has had stints in rehab, various high-profile relationships (including the one with his current girlfriend, former fiancée Jennifer Lopez), he’s been the subject of countless memes, and let’s not forget that giant back tattoo.

And really, while many of us still want to root for Affleck, ultimately, he’s got no one to blame but himself. Or so one might think!

During a chat with Howard Stern on Monday, Affleck opened up about his marriage to Garner, the mother of his three children: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9. According to Affleck, he would probably still be drinking if he were still married to that woman who seems like a literal saint.

“I’d probably still be drinking. It’s part of why I started drinking … because I was trapped,” Affleck told Stern. “I was like ‘I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”

“The truth was, we took our time, we made the decision … We grew apart,” he continued. “We had a marriage that didn’t work, this happens, with somebody that I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer. Ultimately, we tried. We tried, we tried because we had kids. Both of us felt like we don’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage.”

OK, we get it, marriage is hard, even if you’re married to someone as wonderful as Jennifer Garner. Still, Affleck casually dropping that he was drinking because he felt trapped in his marriage seems a little insincere. Especially given that Garner always seems to be there to clean up his messes, be an outlet to vent his frustration, or drive him to rehab — as she very much did in 2018 three full years after their marriage ended.

As such, the internet quickly rallied around Garner to remind Affleck of these facts. Quite a few people brought up the rehab thing, in particular.

One took to Twitter to specifically point out that she “help[ed] him to rehab 3 full years after they’ve already separated.”

Another took to Twitter to observe, “When you can’t accept that your drinking problem is because of you, you still have a drinking problem. Jennifer Garner didn’t drive Ben Affleck to drink, she did however drive him to rehab probably saving his life.”

One assessed the situation and brought up a whole part of the saga involving a certain nanny.

Roxane Gay observed, “I was rooting for Ben Affleck but to blame his drinking on his marriage to Jennifer Garner is so silly. She dried his ass out multiple times! After they broke up even.”

Meredith Lee took to Twitter to bring up the famous tattoo:

And speaking of the back tattoo, HuffPost entertainment writer Cole Delbyck dredged up the infamous interview in which Garner dragged him for it:

With the holidays coming up, one user suggested the perfect gift for Garner’s ex-husband:

And finally, it’s unclear whether the following tweet is in reference to the controversy, or just evergreen. But either way, we’ll take it!