Jennifer Garner on Post-Baby Bikini Bodies, Marriage After Kids, and Why Halle Berry Is an ‘Angel’

Elise Solé
Updated
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Jennifer Garner at the May 18 launch of We Made It, her children’s arts and crafts line in partnership with Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft. $75K of the proceeds will benefit Save the Children Foundation. (Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Jennifer Garner is an actress, humanitarian, and now master crafter — on Monday, the mom-of-three launched “We Made It,” her new line of creative children’s kits in Santa Monica, Calif. “I don’t like my kids to start the day with TV, so we [play with the kits] on Saturday mornings,” she tells Yahoo Parenting. In an exclusive interview, Garner shares the secret to boosting body image, how she and husband Ben Affleck keep their three children (Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and Samuel, 3) humble, and why patience is the one trait marriage needs to survive parenthood.

In the past, you’ve been outspoken about the concept of “post-baby bikini bodies” — how can new moms avoid pressure to achieve one?

Take [pressure] off yourself. Nobody can take it off for you. And don’t be on [social media]. You don’t see me on Instagram. I have an official Facebook page but I’m not reading what all my friends say on Facebook about how great their lives are because it makes you feel bad. I want to talk to my actual friends on the phone. I love seeing pictures and occasionally I will go through and look at all [my friend’s] Instagram photos but if you are not in a fantastic place — if you’ve just had a baby — don’t look at your friend’s hot beach picture…just don’t do it.

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What’s the hardest part about being a parent in Hollywood?

It was the paparazzi, and that, Halle Berry lifted from my shoulders [with Senate Bill 606] and she is an angel. No Kids Policy. [The paparazzi] were so aggressive…but it’s no longer an issue. The hardest part is other kids talking to my children when we aren’t around. Like, ‘It’s so cool your dad’s being Batman’ and trying to control how much that inflates the idea that one person is more important than another. [My husband I] really work to manage that idea — that just because people react a certain way to us, it doesn’t mean we’re more important than anyone else. And [the kids] are pretty quick to cut us back down to size.

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How does having a baby change marriage?

You just go on a ride together because you don’t know who you’re going to be when you first have a baby and you don’t know who [your partner] is going to be. You have to just hang in there while you figure it out — and have a lot of patience for each other.

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