Jennifer Garner Revealed Why She and Ben Affleck Have No Family Photos

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck were constantly getting photographed by paparazzi. She shared how this impacted their children.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck were married for 10 years before they decided to separate. In that time, they had three children together. Garner has tried her best to protect them from the public eye, but she said this has always been a struggle. Her children have been swarmed by paparazzi all throughout their lives. She said this has been so hard on them that they have very few family photos.

Jennifer Garner said she and Ben Affleck have no family photos

When Garner and Affleck were together, she said she could hardly go anywhere without having a camera in her face. She said that in the early years of their marriage, as many as 20 paparazzi would loiter in her driveway.

“We lived down a street that was chock-a-block full of actors, much more successful and famous and decorated than me, including Ben, and they’d all go by one by one, no problem, and then I’d go do a school run and it’d be 15 cars going with me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “I never had a day without them, and if I did, if I made it to a park by hiding in the bottom of the pool man’s truck or something, then a nanny would see me there and call a number and they’d swarm.”

When the couple’s eldest daughter, Violet, was in kindergarten, Garner tried to get authorities to do more to protect children against the media. Violet even spoke about it.

“Violet’s hyper-articulate — she is Ben Affleck’s daughter — and she stood up on a chair in a little velvet dress, with her hair a bit back and her glasses on and she didn’t say her R’s right, and she said: ‘We didn’t ask for this. We don’t want these cameras, they’re scary. The men are scary, they knock each other over and it’s hard to feel like a kid when you’re being chased.’”

Garner said that the constant presence of photographers scared her children enough that they developed a fear of cameras. As a result, the family doesn’t have photos together.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s children have missed out on some experiences

Garner and Affleck considered moving out of Los Angeles to escape prying eyes, but they realized “some bobo with a camera” would find them wherever they went. In order to protect their children from this, they had to prevent them from having certain experiences.

In 2020, they were able to go to the beach because of the modicum of privacy provided by face masks. This was not something that they were able to do before.

“But it just put so much anxiety in our little family,” she said. “I told them, ‘We’d try to go and we’d just get chased away [by the camera scrum].’ And you’re not just ruining the experience for your family, you’re ruining it for everybody. It’s like, ‘Who wants to have us around?’ ”

She allowed photos at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony

Garner has managed to keep photos of her children from circulating to the best of her ability. She did allow photographers to snap pictures at her Walk of Fame ceremony, though. She wanted everyone to be able to remember the moment.

“I don’t have two Oscars on my mantle, I’ve raised them,” she said, “and I think every little kid has a dream that their mom will have a moment where people applaud her so that they can say, ‘That’s right, I knew it,’ and my kids got to have that and for that I’m grateful.”