Breaking News: Ben Affleck Said Divorcing Jennifer Garner Was His ‘Biggest Regret’ Well, people don’t appreciate things until they’re gone, and she seemed really sad…see more

“I drank relatively normally for a long time. What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart.

This was 2015, 2016,” he said. “My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”

Affleck said he felt guilt and shame at the end of his marriage.

“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” he told The New York Times. “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”

Affleck sought help for substance abuse in 2001 and twice more in 2017 and 2018 when Garner was photographed driving her ex-husband to a treatment facility. Last fall, he admitted to what he called a “slip-up” after he was photographed appearing to be slightly unsteady during a night out.

While Affleck has been through some difficult life events, he said it’s important that he doesn’t “obsess over the failures — the relapses — and beat myself up.”