Ben Affleck Gushed About His "Wonderful" Ex Jennifer Garner

During a March 4 appearance on the Today Show alongside Triple Frontier costar Charlie Hunnam, Ben Affleck spoke candidly about his "lifelong" addiction to alcohol, and how his actions have impacted his relationships.

Back in October, the 46-year-old wrote in a letter posted to Instagram that he had completed a 40-day treatment program for his addiction, thanking his family, friends as well as his fans for their continued support.

Speaking of the letter to Hoda Kotb, he said, “I feel like I had a problem and I really want to address it, and I take some pride in that…it's about yourself, your life, your family, and you know people — we encounter these kinds of hurdles and we have to deal with them.”

As for his relationship with his ex, Jennifer Garner, he added, “She's wonderful. Somebody's the mother of your kids — they're going to be the most important, central person in your life, and that's good.”

Though both have moved on from their relationship, which ended in 2015 (though the divorce was only just finalized at the end of 2018), they are frequently photographed together. On Saturday, he told Entertainment Tonight he felt sorry for Garner after their seven-year-old son, Samuel, had a less than enthusiastic reaction to Garner's How to Train Your Dragon costume.

"I felt so bad. She was devastated," he said. "She had gone to all these lengths to put on the costume."

As for his own parenting prowess, the actor said he's doing his best. "I certainly try very hard. I'm lucky they've got a great mom, and she helps out a great deal with making sure that we co-parent in as good a way as possible…that's really the central preoccupation in my life, you know, the focus of my life is what I love doing. It's what makes me happy and the rest of the stuff kind of follows.”

Affleck seems to have reconciled with his previous girlfriend, SNL producer Lindsay Shookus, earlier this year; over the weekend, they made their reunion red carpet official, arriving at the premiere of Affleck's latest film together. Though she has yet to publicly confirm her relationship, Garner has been connected to entrepreneur John Miller since last year.

Speaking of exes named Jennifer, Affleck concluded his Today Show interview with a very relatable story about his experience trying Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez's no-sugar, no-carb 10-day challenge. (Though he only referred to Rodriguez by name.)

“I just did the A-rod 10-day challenge…it was a little bit tough, but I did it…it's awful for the first couple of days because I am definitely somebody who likes bread and sugar… it's terrible, you get through it and you're like I feel pretty good. Of course by the end of ten days, I had three bagels.”