Ben Affleck was ever the doting dad as he spent Saturday afternoon with two of his kids.
At the age of 52, the actor went for lunch with his 16-year-old son, Fin, and 13-year-old son, Samuel, at Huckleberry Cafe in Santa Monica. This outing followed his recent Mother’s Day visit to their mother, Jennifer Garner, aged 53.
While dining at the cafe, the actor, known for his role in Batman, seemed a little preoccupied with his phone. Observers noticed him making a surprised expression as he looked at something on the screen. This comes at a time when his ex-girlfriend, Ana de Armas, 37, is now dating Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise, aged 62.
Fin, who held a book, was pictured glancing over at the phone as if trying to decipher what had captured Ben’s attention so intently.
Not pictured on the outing was older sister Violet, 18, who’s away in college.
Ben sported a black peacoat with matching jeans and boots for the outing. Peeking out from underneath his coat was a grey t-shirt.
He completed the look with a pair of aviator sunglasses.
Finn rocked a white and orange sweatshirt, blue jeans, and a brown belt.
The youngster’s shoe laces appeared untied, posing a potential tripping hazard.
Ben’s son Samuel sported a grey hoodie, grey sweatpants and blue and white sneakers.
The sneakers appeared to be the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG, which have a resale market price anywhere from $3,000 to upwards of $6,000.
It comes after Affleck had a blistering response when Samuel publicly asked him for $6,000 sneakers back in March.
During a visit to the Got Sole sneaker convention, the actor reassured his teenage son about the value of hard work. When Samuel expressed interest in a pair of Dior Air Jordan 1 shoes, the actor used the moment to teach him a lesson about earning money, straightforwardly telling him, ‘You’re broke.’
In a later red carpet interview at SXSW, Affleck, who has a reported $150 million net worth, explained why he turned down the request.
‘He’s like “We have the money,”‘ the father-of-three told Access Hollywood. ‘I’m like “I have the money, you’re broke!”‘
‘That’s what happens when you tell a motherf***er they have to mow a lawn. All of a sudden they don’t want those shoes,’ Affleck, who shares his son’s love of sneakers, joked.
Affleck added that ‘there’s always some grift why I need to be buying… I’m like, man, you do not need thousand dollar shoes.’
In a video from the convention, shared on the Got Sole Instagram account, Affleck was seen telling his son, ‘That’s a lot of lawns you’ve gotta mow there.’
‘You just like those because they’re expensive,’ he added.
It comes after Affleck recently visited his ex-wife Garner on Mother’s Day. The Argo director was spotted heading toward Garner’s home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles and seemed to be carrying a small gift.
The pair sparked reconciliation rumors earlier this year following a very public embrace.
Affleck and Garner were married from 2005 to 2018. She has since been in an off-again-on-again relationship with businessman John Miller.
Last month Ben praised Jennifer and their co-parenting partnership during an interview with British GQ.
‘I’m really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner, the kids’ mom, who’s wonderful and great and we work together well.’
That same month the pair were seen embracing during an outing, sending the internet into a frenzy.
Daily Mail later learned Garner is ‘deathly afraid of falling back in love’ with the actor, with a source saying she still has ‘trust issues’ with Affleck following affair rumors with their children’s nanny, Christine Ouzounian, now 37, a decade ago.
‘She loves Ben but is worried that he will crush her all over again,’ the source said.
‘She doesn’t want to heal another broken heart because it is just too much drama, plus she does not want their kids to see round two of their mom in a bad place with their dad.
‘So much could go wrong if they reunite.’
Affleck has not spoken much about his recent divorce from second wife Jennifer Lopez, 55, but was photographed spending more time with first wife Garner in the months that followed.
He wed Lopez in 2022 and she filed for divorce last year following months of speculation. The marriage officially ended earlier this year.
The 13 Going On 30 star was said to have played a key role in helping her ex-husband through his split from Lopez, adopting the role of ‘marriage counsellor’ to the struggling couple, with some friends feared she had been forced to ‘play mediator.’
