Jennifer Garner Shares Harrowing Experiences with Paparazzi While Raising Her Kids

Jennifer Garner is sharing her experiences regarding the extent to which paparazzi go to capture images of her and Ben Affleck’s children.

“If I passed through a yellow light, it was as if 15 cars would race through the red [light] right behind me. They would drive onto people’s lawns and even up hillsides,” Garner, 54, reflected during her appearance on the “Shut Up Evan” podcast on Tuesday, July 21.

Garner and Affleck, 53, were married from 2005 to 2018 after starring together in the 2003 film Daredevil. They are the parents of three children: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 12.

“We were trying to have our little one play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars showing up,” the Five-Star Weekend actress recalled. “It wasn’t just about us; it highlighted an industry that had spiraled out of control.”

“If you arrive at the pediatrician’s office with a sick child on your shoulder and feel scared because you can’t enter the door due to a blockade of photographers, that’s fundamentally wrong,” Garner expressed. “And the kids are suffering the consequences.”

“Kids were getting knocked over while exiting preschool by photographers who were so desperate to capture a shot of either me or Ben, trying to reach our children,” she noted.

According to Garner, photographers were especially keen on taking pictures of her with her kids, even though there were “more famous” individuals living in close proximity.

“It simply became ridiculous,” she commented. “I lived on a street filled with far more famous and successful individuals, yet they followed me because I had children.”

Garner added, “They wouldn’t track Ben, nor would they follow Matt Damon… they were only interested in ‘the woman with the kids.’”

The Alias alum revealed that she is still regularly pursued by at least two photographers and has formed an unusual rapport with one.

“I have two [photographers] who have been assigned to me daily for over 20 years, almost 25 years,” Garner shared. “I have an intriguing relationship with my primary photographer. I’ve done everything in my power to ask him to step back, but at the same time, we have a mutual respect.”

“We’ve shared some very real-life moments together,” she elaborated. “There was a time I was followed by someone who, for reasons unknown, I feared might harm me, and I ran to him because I trusted him and felt safe.”

Garner concluded, “There’s a sort of Stockholm syndrome at play, and yet I’ve called the police on him numerous times, pleading, ‘Can you please let me take a walk around the block with my kids and my dog?’”