Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner ‘will not have an ugly divorce’

 
Split: Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck married in 2005 (Picture: Getty)
Getty
David Gardner1 July 2015
The Weekender

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Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner may be heading for a £100 million Hollywood divorce — but they are still living under the same roof.

The stars plan to continue living in their 8,800 sq ft estate in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, with their three young children. The biggest obstacle is likely to focus on how to divide their property, which includes homes in California, New York, Montana and Georgia.

“This should not be an ugly divorce,” a source told People. “They plan on co-parenting and doing absolutely everything in the best interest of the kids.”

Affleck, 42, and Garner are said to be working with an arbitrator rather than lawyers in a bid to keep the split relatively amicable. However, neither signed a pre-nuptial agreement.

Filing for shared custody will allow them to continue to make daughters Violet, nine, and Seraphina, six, and three-year-old Samuel “their top priority”, the source said.

“They’ve been in counselling for some time and have tried hard to work through things,” the source said of the couple, who married in 2005. “They’ve been separated for a few months but will continue to work together as co-parents and as two people who still care about each other.” In the announcement last night, a day after their 10th wedding anniversary, Affleck and Garner, 43, said: “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 time.”

The pair co-starred in 2001’s Pearl Harbor but Affleck later said they fell in love filming Daredevil in 2002. They share their ranch in Pacific Palisades, a Manhattan flat, a ski chalet in Big Sky, Montana, and an estate near Savannah, Georgia.

There has been speculation that Affleck’s gambling in Las Vegas may have played a part in the breakdown of the marriage. On his wife’s birthday in April, the two-time Oscar-winner was spotted without his wedding ring on a solo trip to Canada.

Garner discussed her marriage in early May, saying: “You just go on a ride together because you don’t know who you’re going to be when you first have a baby and you don’t know who [your partner] is going to be. You have to just hang in there while you figure it out — and have a lot of patience for each other.”

In 2013, Affleck thanked Garner for “working” on their marriage while accepting the best picture Oscar for Argo. The director said: “It is work but it’s the best kind of work and there is nobody else I would rather do that kind of work with.”

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