A new report revealed that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner almost called it quits three years ago, but stayed married for the sake of their children.
The former couple announced the shocking news of their divorce in a joint statement after being secretly separated for 10 months.
Their statement read: “After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce. We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children whose privacy we ask to be respected during this difficult time.”
The Hollywood actors were married for 10 years and have three children together: Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and Samuel, 3.
An insider revealed that Affleck only stayed in the marriage because of their kids.
“Ben truly wanted his idea of family life and the idea of family he had growing up in Boston. So he stayed in it longer than he wanted to because of the kids and the idea of family, but he couldn’t save it,” the insider said.
The “Argo” actor and Garner were reportedly going to end things after their son Samuel was born. They reportedly decided to go to couples therapy to save their marriage, but a source said that “it hasn’t been working for ages.”
Affleck and Garner first met on the set of Pearl Harbor in 2001 and started dating after filming the 2003 film Daredevil.