Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner took their son Samuel, 14, on an errand run in sunny Los Angeles on Friday, April 4, 2026, a familiar outing that again showed the former couple moving easily together after their 2018 divorce. Jennifer Garner, 53, kept an arm around Samuel’s shoulders as the family handled the day together.
The sight followed a recent stop that pointed to the same easy rhythm: Affleck, also 53, treated Samuel to chicken nuggets at McDonald’s. The couple also share Violet, 20, and Fin, 17, and have long made a habit of showing up together for holidays and birthdays, even after their marriage ended.
That routine was on display most clearly on February 28, 2026, when they co-hosted a paintball party for Samuel’s 14th birthday at Combat Paintball Park in Castaic, California. They were seen arriving at the park for the celebration, and it was not their first time there; the year before, they marked Samuel’s 13th birthday at the same place.
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Garner has been blunt about what that kind of family life demands. In a recent interview on Bustle’s One Nightstand YouTube series, she said she believes her kids’ dad approaches raising the children with the same care she does, adding that when children grow up in two separate households, she becomes “mom and dad” and he becomes “dad and mom.”
She has also described the breakup itself as painful. In a separate interview with Marie Claire UK, Garner said the hard part was not the public fallout but the breakup of the family, and the loss of a true partnership and friendship. The balance she described is the one visible now: a family that is no longer married, but still shows up as one when it counts.
