It looks like Ben Affleck isn’t the only one getting a frustrating media twist after his candid two-hour interview with Howard Stern. Just days after he defended himself against the media angle of that interview, Jennifer Lopez is pushing back against claims she was “pissed” about what he said.
In using that word, Page Six reported that Lopez is frustrated because “she is getting pulled into this because she is dating him.” But, in a story published Saturday night by People, J.Lo said, “This story is simply not true. It is not how I feel.”
Rather than being “pissed” at Affleck, with whom she has rekindled a romantic relationship, Lopez said, “I couldn’t have more respect for Ben as a father, a co-parent, and a person.”
Lopez has been seen developing a relationship with Affleck’s kids with Garner, 16-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Seraphina and 9-year-old Samuel, as well as Garner herself.
The out-of-context quote from Affleck’s sprawling discussion with Stern came when he started talking about his alcoholism, saying that he fell into it in part because he felt trapped. Immediately, this was reported as him blaming Garner both for feeling trapped in his marriage and family and for his subsequent drinking.
“Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped,” Affleck said in his interview with Stern. “I was like, ‘I can’t leave because of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ And what I did was drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution.”
He said that he and Garner tried to make their marriage work, but also the felt they “didn’t want this to be the model that our kids see of marriage.”
Affleck himself went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” shortly thereafter to set the record straight, telling Kimmel that he would never want his kids thinking he was out there bad-mouthing their mother.
“They had, literally, taken the conversation I had for two hours and made it seem as if I was saying the exact opposite of what I said,” Affleck said of the media. “I had gone on and said, like, how much we respect each other and cared about each other and cared about our kids and put them first and went through our stuff.”
“And they said I had blamed my ex wife for my alcoholism and that I was ‘trapped’ and just made me out to be the worst, most insensitive, stupid awful guy,” he continued.
For her part, Garner has not officially commented one way or another, which might be for the best as it might save her having to come out later and correct the record.
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