'The Biggest Regret of My Life': Ben Affleck opens up about divorce from Jennifer Garner and alcoholism

Ben Affleck opens up about his alcoholism, relapse and divorce. Photo / Getty Images

In efforts to promote Ben Affleck's upcoming film, The Way Back, the actor has opened up about his own efforts to battle alcoholism, relapse and the divorce he still regrets.

In The Way Back, Affleck is an alcoholic figuring out a way to overcome his demons, a role he was much too familiar with in his personal life.

The New York Times interview also marks a year since Affleck's announcement he would give up the role of The Dark Night. The actor was told by a friend the role could push him to "drink himself to death," if he went through what he did with the DC film Justice League.

The actor went to rehab in 2001, 2017, 2018 and admitted to briefly relapsing after a year of sobriety in 2019.

"I drank relatively normally for a long time," Affleck told the New York Times.

"What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems."

"You're trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse."

"Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can't break. That's at least what happened to me," the actor added.

Affleck highlighted in his interview that his alcoholism impacted "the biggest regret of his life," his divorce from Jennifer Garner, although he tries to not to obsess over all the mistakes he has made.

• The Way Back comes to the big screen on March 5.