Ben Affleck once revealed why his relationships 'never end well' in resurfaced interview amid divorce

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Amid Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s ongoing divorce proceedings, an old interview of the ‘Gone Girl’ actor discussing his unhealthy coping mechanism in a relationship has resurfaced.

More than two weeks after Lopez filed for divorce from her husband of two years, an old interview of Ben Affleck has been unearthed by Internet sleuths. 

In the interview published in the December 1999, Affleck opened up about the “passive-aggressive rage” that he often developed in a relationship that led to the dissolution of his romance.

Ben Affleck discussed his questionable coping tendencies in the 1999 interview

In an excerpt from the interview from 1999, which has gone viral on Reddit recently, an interviewer asked Affleck, 52, whether his “other former girlfriends [are] generally p**sed off” at him.

Affleck, who publicly had two relationships by that time, responded candidly, “Mostly, yeah," per Daily Mail.

After he was urged to elaborate, Affleck admitted, “Probably justifiably so. If I were the next guy to go out with them I'm sure I would be nodding in agreement about what an a**hole their ex-boyfriend was.”

He explained, “It's not like I was a womanizer or physically abusive or psychologically abusive or whatever,” before adding, “It's just that these relationships never end well.”

“I think what happens is, I end up wanting to be out of the relationship,” Affleck continued before shedding light on his tendencies. 

“During the course of a relationship, if you get dissatisfied and unhappy and don't say something, if you don't deal with it right then, it just festers and stays there,” admitted the ‘Gigli’ actor. 

He shared while admitting his role in a relationship’s failure, “So instead of saying, 'Look, don't do that, please don't act this way,' I go along with it until I just don't want to be in the relationship at all.”

“Then I create some incident or do something or just don't call. And then she's p**sed,” explained Affleck. 

He admitted that since he knew his shortcomings, he did not blame his ex-partners for the breakups. 

“And I can't necessarily blame her at that point since I've developed such a passive-aggressive rage that I have no sympathy and tell her, 'Well of course I didn't call you. If you weren't such a nagging, shrewish harpy I'd call you,'” said Affleck. 

Nevertheless, at that time, Affleck said that he was working on his shortcomings to be a better partner, saying, “But that hopefully is something I'm growing out of.”

During the time of the interview, the ‘Good Will Hunting’ actor was in an on-and-off relationship with his ‘Shakespeare in Love’ co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, 51. They dated from 1997 to 2000 when they shared the screen in another film ‘Bounce’. 

Before dating the ‘Iron Man’ actress, the ‘Argo’ actor dated director Cheyenne Rothman, 52. The high school sweethearts dated from 1990 to 1997 before their break up. 

Though the actor claimed to be mending his ways, his fans over the Internet were not convinced as they took to the Reddit section to call the actor out for allegedly showing the same behavior to his other partners as well. 

Shortly after the interview was published, Affleck embarked on his first relationship with Jennifer Lopez before postponing their marriage and subsequently breaking up in 2004. 

In 2005, he got married to Jennifer Garner and welcomed three children together - Violet, Fin and Samuel. 

Following the couple’s divorce in 2018, Affleck reconnected with Lopez and tied the knot in 2022. After months of speculation about a marital discord, the ‘Jenny From The Block’ singer put the rumors to the rest by filing for a divorce on the second anniversary of their court wedding. 

Ben Affleck leaves fans wondering about his divorce through resurfaced interview

Reddit users claimed not to be surprised as his candid interview from 1999 resurfaced. However, they did not fail to criticize Affleck as the fans noted self-awareness without rectifying the issue still amounts to nothing. 

One of the Redditors commented, "Well said! If he's talking about his issues, but not doing any real work to fix them, then he's simply a guy who likes to talk about himself."

"Dismissive avoidant? Anyway he sucks but it must be tragic to go through 20 years continually making the same mistakes over and over again," said someone else.

Another fan noted, not without irony, "Dude he has children who were born and became full adults since this interview was conducted and he's still doing this shit."

"I remember reading that Ben’s father (who is a former alcoholic himself) left to California right after divorcing Ben’s mom and she basically had to raise the kids on her own as a single parent with no support. I can’t help but think that’s why Ben is the way he is. It’s just unfortunate he can’t seem to break the cycle. Though to his credit, he does seem like he is a present and active father to his own children," commented another fan. 

Someone else declared while criticizing him, "Sorry, 1999 Ben. Looks like you didn’t grow out of it."

Someone else nodded in agreement, while saying, "Yepppp. And both Garner and Lopez seem like they may have “fixer” tendencies in their relationships. The wounded man with a traumatic childhood/“I can fix him with my love” woman dynamic is pretty freaking universal, sadly."

"This is what a lot of people have said…he’s great at the chase and the lovey-dovey beginning of the relationship but gets bored once that’s over and the real relationship that requires effort begins and he nopes on out of there," observed another disgruntled fan.

Someone else thought about Jennifer Garner, saying, "Well, he is consistent. I wonder what it must've been like for Garner to go through this with children involved. And to think he engraved “not going anywhere” on a ring for JLo. Hope the next one knows what she's getting into."

"Man, one of Jlo’s peeps should have reminded her of this interview before she walked down the aisle. Gahd damn," exclaimed another fan.

Someone else noted while talking about Lopez, "Her engagement ring was engraved with “Not.Going.Anywhere.” which she says he signed all of his emails with since they started speaking again. I’m only guessing, but sounds like she must have been worried about this very thing if he had to do all that."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.