Ben Affleck has graded himself as a father, and the grade is not great. In a preview of the Oct. 11 episode of Sunday Today with Willie Geist, reported by E! Online, the 54-year-old joked that ex-wife Jennifer Garner sets the parenting bar so high that he can’t quite reach it.
“Their mom is spectacular,” Affleck said, adding that it always leaves him feeling like he comes up a little short.
Ben Affleck’s 75 Percent Joke
Affleck told Geist that he tells their three children he’s “doing about 75 percent as good as your mom.”
Affleck’s kids grade him harder than he grades himself. “Maybe 40 percent,” is their answer, he said, laughing as he retold it. Then he landed the punchline on himself: “I’m maxing out. Woo, B+!”
Funny line. Also a revealing one. Affleck and Garner split in 2015 after nearly 10 years of marriage, and a decade later he is on national television ranking himself below her, out loud, in front of everyone. Nobody does that about an ex they are still fighting with. Self-deprecation about a former spouse only works when the rivalry is gone. What’s left is a man comfortable enough to lose the comparison on purpose.
What Affleck Said About Respect
He dropped the jokes when the conversation turned serious. Affleck said he is “grateful” to have Garner as a co-parent. “I respect her,” he said, according to E! Online.
His explanation was simple. “I think the most important thing is having that mutual respect,” he told Geist, along with being able to get along with the other person.
Respect is the unglamorous part of a divorce that works. Love ends, the marriage ends, but two people still have to agree on school pickups and holidays for years afterward. Feeling outmatched by an ex is common. Admitting it without resentment is rarer, and that’s the gap between co-parents who cooperate and co-parents who keep score.
One Week On, One Week Off
Affleck has been saying versions of this for the whole press tour for his new film, Animals. In an interview Variety published Oct. 7, he described his routine plainly: work hard, then go home and pick the kids up from school. Dinner happens if they agree to hang out with him, he joked. “They’re with me for a week, then with their mom for a week,” he said. He also told Variety the kids have a great thing with their mom, and that he is really grateful for her.
Where Ben Affleck Says Things Stand
Affleck didn’t pretend everything is solved. He said he knows hard things will come up and doesn’t want to jinx anything. Still, he called this “this time in my life as a human being is really wonderful.”
Affleck’s full sit-down with Willie Geist airs Oct. 11 on Sunday Today. His B+ self-grade came from a preview of that episode.
Sources: E! Online
