It's been about eight months since Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner announced that they were ending their 10-year marriage, and in the months following the split came an apparent cheating scandal that was all anyone could talk about. At the time, rumors started going around that Affleck and the couple's former nanny, Christine Ouzounian, had an affair, and even though Affleck's rep had denied that anything had ever gone on between him and the 28-year-old, Garner had managed to stay tight-lipped.
In the March 2016 issue of Vanity Fair, Garner finally addresses nannygate for the first time. "Let me just tell you something. We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation," she said. "Bad judgement? Yes. It's not great for your kids for [a nanny] to disappear from their lives." Months later, she's still dealing with the damage. "I have had to have conversations about the meaning of 'scandal,'" Garner said.
She and Affleck have three children together, Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, and Sam, 4, and at the time when the "scandal" rumors first started going around, reports were saying that Garner had fired Ouzounian after she suspected something was going on between her and her husband. Despite all of this, Garner also opened up about Affleck and the love she still shares for him.
"I didn't marry the big fat movie star; I married him," she explained. "And I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can't have these three babies and so much of what we had. He's the love of my life. What am I going to do about that? He's the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous. He's just a complicated guy. I always say, 'When the sun shines on you, you feel it.' But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it's cold. He can cast quite a shadow."
While they are not back together, they do still try to remain civil for the sake of their children. "It's not Ben's job to make me happy. The main thing is these kids-and we're completely in line with what we hope for them," she added. "Sure, I lost the dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter's wedding. But you should see their faces when he walks through the door. And if you see your kids love someone so purely and wholly, then you're going to be friends with that person."
The two even spent this past Valentine's Day together with their children skiing in Montana, as HNGN previously reported. "It hasn't been easy, especially for Jen," a source explained. "[Garner] chooses to look the other way and do what's best for her kids."
