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Ben Affleck‘s been surprisingly honest and genuine when it comes to his sobriety, but his relapse at a 2019 Halloween party caused quite a stir among the tabloids. While the star addressed the situation as an isolated and unfortunate incident, rumor had it that it was his series of romantic struggles last year that pushed him back to drinking. As we approach the date of Affleck’s infamous 2019 relapse, we thought it’d be best to look back on the gossip and see what’s changed since then.
Ben Affleck’s Halloween Relapse
The Globe was responsible for the initial report. In a series of insulting jabs at the actor, the magazine swore that the “lonely Lothario” was beyond frustrated with the failures in his dating life. His brief foray with Raya, a high-profile celebrity dating app, was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back. The tabloid’s insiders revealed that Affleck was actually in good spirits when he first joined the exclusive platform, but that quickly turned into regret and embarrassment. One of the sources even told the tabloid,
He was excited and raring to go when he joined, but then people started making fun of his profile, and his confidence plunged.
Affleck’s use of the app was quickly made public by Page Six, and fans and critics alike jumped on the opportunity to make jokes about profile pictures and music choices at Affleck’s expense. Looking back, it seems a little odd that a tabloid was arguing that someone who’s faced some of the toughest scrutiny in Hollywood over their creative choices was suddenly destroyed by weak wisecracks and memes.
Even worse, the Globe promised, was the fact that he’d struck out when it came to finding his next soul mate on the app. Affleck had apparently joined to find someone he could have a genuine conversation with, but every match he met up with didn’t quite live up to his standards. The problem was that all of the women he’d swipe right on “don’t want to talk about anything except Hollywood and how he can help them get in movies,” leaving Affleck with nothing but his “lonely Lothario” title. “The truth is that it’s not going too well for him,” the questionable source explained.
Addiction Doesn’t Work Like That
While it was true that Affleck relapsed at a party last year, this tabloid report did nothing but further stigmatize alcoholism and addiction. Addiction is a much more complicated experience than the way it’s depicted in this article, and despite the outlet’s insistence that the actor was “unapologetic” about the situation, he was upfront and genuine when he addressed it.
In a New York Times interview from this past February, Affleck opened up more about his life and addiction. “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing,” he explained. “It’s not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures — the relapses — and beat myself up,” Affleck said. “I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”
That’s what Ben Affleck is like — not some sad sack looking for an excuse to drink like the tabloid’s portrayal of the Good Will Hunting mastermind. As he and many experts have said before, addiction is a lifelong thing that isn’t as simple as the Globe would have you believe. As Affleck wrote after he completed a stint in rehab in 2018, it’s something he has to deal with every single day.
Ben Affleck Is Happy With Ana De Armas
There were multiple other falsehoods in the article — Affleck turned his public dating profile into an excuse to raise funds for his favorite charity and had no shame about being a celebrity that would like to date — but given that Affleck seems to have settled into a solid relationship with Hollywood’s new favorite actress, Ana de Armas, we don’t feel the need to retread those details.
Unfortunately, the Globe hasn’t changed one bit and has now pivoted from calling Affleck a lonely loser to saying that he’ll be one again soon. Last month, it put out a bogus story about how Affleck and de Armas were headed for “Splitsville,” but it’s now been more than a month without any legitimate outlets publishing anything that could even begin to corroborate the claim. Instead, all we can see is a happy and healthy Affleck getting along just fine.
Our Verdict
Gossip Cop has determined this story is totally false.