Ben Affleck On How Father's Alcoholism Influenced His Decision to Stay Sober For His Kids | THR News - video Dailymotion

The actor opened up about how his children inspire him to stay sober, revealing that alcoholism runs in his family.

Transcript

00:00I started to drink more and more and more, and it was really hard for me to accept that that meant I was an alcoholic.

00:06I was like, I can just go back.

00:09Ben Affleck opened up in a revealing new interview with GMA about what or who inspired him to stay sober.

00:15The actor spoke candidly in a two-part interview with Diane Sawyer that aired on Good Morning America.

00:20In the Thursday segment, the actor revealed that alcoholism runs in his family.

00:25For me, seeing my dad was just, he was drunk every day, and that was just life.

00:28And as that got worse, that was really, really painful.

00:33While he said that he wished his father had been sober during his childhood,

00:36seeing his father's alcoholism is how the actor says he learned how important it was for him to stay sober during his kid's formative years.

00:43Affleck credited his children for his decision to go to rehab two times over the past three years.

00:48I really don't want my children to pay for my sins or to be afraid for me,

00:52which is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic.

00:54During the second part of Affleck's interview on Friday,

00:57the actor credited some famous friends for helping him stay sober.

01:01He shared that fellow actors Bradley Cooper and Robert Downey Jr.

01:04were helpful and supportive during his sobriety and called them wonderful men.

01:08Affleck also opened up about his divorce to Jennifer Garner,

01:11admitting that he had a hard time accepting it.

01:14The couple who shared three children divorced in 2018.

01:17They didn't want to be a divorced person.

01:18I really didn't want to be a split family with my children.

01:24He continued saying,

01:25It upset me because it meant I wasn't who I thought I was,

01:28and that was so painful and so disappointing.

01:31The actor was also asked if there was anything from his past that he wished he could change.

01:35I've made plenty of mistakes, some big, some small.

01:38I wish I could go back time and change all kinds of things, but I can't.

01:41For more on this story, head to tjar.com.

01:43For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.

01:47For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.