Happier than ever! Jennifer Garner was all smiles with her and Ben Affleck‘s son, Samuel, as the duo stepped out for a rare public appearance.
The Alias alum, 50, watched the Los Angeles Lakers face off against the Golden State Warriors at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) on Sunday, March 5. Garner sat at courtside with Samuel, 11, who rocked a blue sweatshirt with Stephen Curry‘s name on the front. (The Warriors lost 105-113.)
At one point during the game, the 13 Going on 30 star turned to her son and placed a hand on his cheek. Her other hand laid in her lap, with Samuel’s palm sweetly resting in hers.
Along with the preteen, Garner shares daughters Violet, 17, and Seraphina, 14, with Affleck, 50. The former couple were married for 10 years before calling it quits in 2015. Their divorce was finalized three years later.
“Ben and Jen have immense love and respect for one another,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2018. “They still coparent together and that will always come first. He will always be supportive of any decision she makes and ultimately just wants her to be happy.”
The Oscar winner has since remarried, exchanging vows with Jennifer Lopez in July 2022. Before reconnecting with the Hustlers star, 53, Affleck confessed that his split from Garner came with challenges.
“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” he told The New York Times in February 2020. “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive by-product of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”
The Way Back actor admitted that his struggles with alcoholism and addiction “created more marital problems” for him and the Texas native. Days after his bombshell NYT profile was published, Affleck continued to shed light on the aftermath of his split from Garner on Good Morning America.
“I never thought that I was gonna get divorce. I didn’t want to get divorced. I didn’t want to be a divorced person. I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children,” he noted. “And it upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was. And that was so painful and so disappointing in myself.”
Garner stood by her now-ex-husband’s side throughout his ups and downs, which included multiple stints in rehab. When it comes to coparenting, a source exclusively told Us in May 2020 that the former spouses “have worked hard to get in a good place with each other.”
The pair have remained on good terms as they navigate their lives as a blended family. Despite previously telling Vanity Fair in 2016 that she “lost the dream of dancing with [Ben] at [their] daughter’s wedding,” Garner changed her tune years later.
“When our kids get married, we’ll dance, I know that now,” the Catch Me If You Can star — who is dating businessman John Miller — said in a Hollywood Reporter cover story in 2021. “We’ll boogaloo and have a great time. I don’t worry about that anymore.”
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