Every Sunday, like clockwork, when he’s not out of town filming, Ben Affleck takes his children to church in L.A. Sometimes he’s with his soon-to-be ex-wife Jennifer Garner. Other times, like yesterday when she was traveling, he’s on a solo mission with the kids. He has never brought his girlfriend, Lindsay Shookus, on the family outing.
Also like clockwork, the paparazzi lurk outside the family’s Pacific Palisades, Calif., Methodist church to await the arrival of Ben and Jen with their kids. Well, it seems Affleck, 45, finally had enough of the unholy attention.
The actor and director turned his camera on the photographers — and it was an interesting view. We see the paparazzi photos and in the past — right after Ben and Jen’s split — have used them. But seeing the crowd of shutterbugs — about 10 on hand for a weekly, off-the-clock, family activity like church — with their cameras trained on Affleck’s car shows the photographs in a whole new light.
A light he wants dimmed, per his post. The Batman star said he wasn’t sure what “is urgently newsworthy” about a “middle-aged man taking his kids to church.”
Again, imagine this was awaiting your children when you arrived at church.
As for the Affleck kids, there are photos of them too, but we don’t use paparazzi pix of celebrity children. It seems that when he leaves church with the kids — Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 6 — are when shutterbugs get their money shots.
Garner, who was behind California instituting an anti-paparazzi law curtailing threatening behavior of photographers toward stars’ children, was away for the weekend visiting her family’s farm in Oklahoma with her mother. Mother and daughter did a photo shoot for Southern Living magazine.
Ben and Jen announced their split in 2015, but waited two years to file for divorce. They’ve been slowly and, yes, consciously uncoupling ever since. At first he lived in the guesthouse. Then he got his own place. Their weekly church trips have continued as a family event. Their divorce has not yet been finalized.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
