Ben Affleck is typically a very private person. Across his now 30 years working in Hollywood, he rarely gives interviews about his personal life. Until now, that is. The 52-year-old actor has opened up about his divorce from Jennifer Lopez and co-parenting relationship with his first wife Jennifer Garner in a new interview with GQ.

Affleck married Lopez in 2022, two decades after they got engaged at the height of their fame in the early noughties. The pair called it quits before the big day way back then, but rekindled as adults and quickly headed to the altar. Almost three years into their marriage, the pair filed for divorce, with much ado made about what could’ve possibly happened to tear them apart a second time.

Many pointed the finger at Lopez, citing her documentary about their relationship, called The Greatest Love Story Never Told, as a key reason the marriage fell apart. Some claimed they could see signs of disrepair in the series, that Affleck seemed reluctant to be involved and didn’t share the same love for the limelight Lopez did. It was the same narrative that tabloids spread after their first break up – misogyny persisting despite 20 years of so-called progress in the way media outlets talk about women.

Now, Affleck has put rumours that the documentary played any part in their marriage breakdown to bed. ‘I think it’s important to say that wasn’t the cause of some major fracture,’ he explains. ‘It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, “Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had.”’

Did he want to be a part of it? ‘I thought it was an interesting examination,’ he says. Affleck went on to explain that Lopez has always handled celebrity more adeptly than he has, and while his temperament is to be ‘a little bit more reserved and private’, he knew exactly what he was getting into.

‘As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things,’ Affleck explains. ‘And so, I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that? I love and support this person. I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that. And I think the thing that I said in that documentary or the piece that they used was where I said, You don’t marry a ship’s captain and then say, “Well, I don’t like going out in the water.” You’ve got to own what you knew going into any relationship.’

Later in the interview, Affleck reiterates that he had no negativity or judgement towards doing the documentary, or Lopez. ‘I hope I was clear about, when you asked me about Jen and the documentary and I talked about that and my sort of personal life a little bit, which I don’t mind doing as long as my actual feelings and intentions and beliefs are communicated, which I hope I was clear that really this is somebody I have a lot of respect for,’ he says. ‘And I get wanting to divine or explore the kind of differences in perspective that we have in terms of how a person feels comfortable approaching the line between public and private life. But I really hope that whatever you use doesn’t suggest that I have any negativity or judgment or anything regarding that. I have nothing but respect. I guess there’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something. But honestly, like I said, the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting.’

Alas, there was drama behind the marriage ending. Affleck is clear on that. ‘There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue,’ he says. ‘The truth is, when you talk to somebody, “Hey, what happened?” Well, there is no: “This is what happened.” It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do. And as you get older, this is true for me, I assume it’s true for most people, there is no “So-and-so did this” or “This was the big event.”’

In fact, the reason he’s reluctant to talk about his personal life is because ‘it’s embarrassing’ to be that vulnerable, he says. Ultimately then, the truth is entirely less interesting than fiction reported by the showbiz rumour mill – as it often is. Lopez, for her part has similarly expressed an aversion to openly talking about her divorce.

‘It feels vulnerable,’ she told Interview Magazine piece in October, noting she has no regrets about their romance. ‘That doesn’t mean it didn’t almost take me out for good. It almost did.’

Well then, that’s that!