Overview
- Garner told InStyle in an interview published June 3 that the family 'upheaval' around her 2015 separation and 2018 divorce from Ben Affleck led her to largely stop working while her children were young.
- She said performance jobs demand long absences of a year to 18 months for pregnancy or production and that those demands helped drive her decision to prioritize parenting.
- Garner described the past year and a half as a period when she 'indulged' in acting again, citing projects including Peacock’s The Five-Star Weekend and Apple TV+’s The Last Thing He Told Me.
- She says she now sets clear boundaries, generally taking work based in Los Angeles and limiting travel, and that she does not apologize to her children for working.
- Coverage notes wider context for the pause, including past industry pressure on her career and Ben Affleck’s publicly reported treatment for alcohol in 2017–2018, and says the exes have developed an amicable co-parenting relationship.