Ben Affleck Opens Up About the Death of His Parents
Ben Affleck addressed the recent deaths of both of his parents, Timothy Affleck and Chris Anne Affleck, for the first time during an appearance on Kerry Washington’s podcast, “Street You Grew Up On.” Speaking to his “Animals” co-star, the 54-year-old actor shared that his mother and father passed away months apart in April and June.
Reflecting on Childhood and Loss
The losses have prompted the Oscar-winning actor to reexamine his early years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ben Affleck explained on the podcast that losing his parents caused him to start thinking about his own childhood in ways that have been a little bit different. His mother, Chris Anne Affleck, died on June 2 at age 83 following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She spent 35 years teaching public school children before retiring in 2008. Meanwhile, his father, Timothy Affleck, died at age 76. His passing was confirmed earlier this month by his other son, Casey Affleck, during a press conference at the Venice International Film Festival.
Timothy and Chris Anne married in the early 1970s and divorced in 1984, when Ben and Casey were preteens. The former couple raised their sons in Cambridge. Today, Ben Affleck is a father to three children—Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Sam, 14—shared with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. Casey Affleck, 51, shares two adult children, Indiana, 22, and Atticus, 18, with his ex-wife, Summer Phoenix.
Discovering a Mother’s Life Beyond Motherhood
In the wake of his mother’s death, Ben Affleck gained new perspective by reading letters she had written to her parents during her younger years. He described finding a young woman full of life, ambition, and dreams who wanted to be a teacher and traveled to Mississippi for protests. The actor admitted he had previously known his mother only through the lens of her complete devotion to her sons, noting that she made him and his brother the absolute center of her life.
Reading the correspondence changed that view entirely. The actor noted that the letters revealed a woman who had her own whole life for 30 years that had zero to do with him. He recalled thinking that she was gorgeous, smart, thoughtful, and passionate, admitting that he had taken for granted how much she managed as a working mother. He added that she did that so thoroughly and effectively over her whole life that he did not even see her as her own whole person apart from him, an realization that left a profound impression.
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