Jennifer Garner is reflecting on how motherhood and acting have shaped her life after her split from Ben Affleck, saying she feels grateful to have a career she loves, even though it can be demanding and “selfish” by nature. In a new InStyle interview published Wednesday, June 3, the 54-year-old actress said she approaches acting from a place of joy rather than emptiness, explaining that she is not “tortured” by the work and simply enjoys being around other people who love performing. Garner, who was married to Affleck from 2005 to 2018, said her priorities shifted significantly when their three children were young: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13. She described how pregnancy, recovery, and the early years of parenting reduced her time on set, and noted that family upheaval after the split kept her away from work for an extended period.
Even during that quieter stretch, Garner still took on some acting projects, including Juno and The Kingdom, but she said her children did not always make the balancing act easy. She joked that they were tough on her when she missed school events, games, and other typical mom responsibilities. Garner acknowledged that acting demands total focus and can be difficult to reconcile with family life because productions are driven by schedules that do not account for pickups, drop-offs, or family dinners. Still, she said she now chooses jobs carefully, preferring projects based mostly in Los Angeles so she can remain close to her children. One exception was her new Peacock series, The Five Star Weekend, which was filmed in Nantucket over a three-week period.
Garner said she no longer feels the need to apologize to her children for working. Instead, she thanks them for being understanding and sees hard work, mistakes, and setbacks as normal parts of life. She emphasized that her children should be able to see both her dedication to her career and the imperfections that come with it. In her view, working hard and occasionally falling short are lessons worth modeling.
Her comments build on previous reflections about motherhood and coparenting. In an October 2023 interview with Access Hollywood, Garner discussed the pressure working mothers often feel and said the constant reminder that time with children is limited can create panic. She added that her own mother reassured her that she would always be their mom and that her children would ultimately be proud of her for working. Garner’s latest remarks show a more settled perspective: she values acting, but family remains central, and she has found a way to make both parts of her life coexist.
