Ben Affleck breaks silence on both his parents dying this year
Ben Affleck has opened up about the emotional impact of losing his mother and father within two months of each other.
Ben Affleck has admitted the death of both his parents has made him look at his childhood in a "different" way.
The 54-year-old actor has opened up about his heartbreaking year for the first time, after his father Tim died in April, followed by his mother Chris Anne in June aged 83.
Speaking to the Street You Grew Up On podcast, he said: "My parents just died. Both of them. In April, and in June.
“It’s sort of a big thing, and it’s caused me to start thinking about my own childhood in ways that has been a little bit different.”
Ben's brother Casey revealed earlier this month that both their parents had passed away.
While details haven't been given on Tim's death, it was confirmed Chris Anne died aged 83 on June 2 from cardiopulmonary arrest, while pancreatic cancer was a contributing factor.
Ben said: "I’ve certainly learned to even more deeply appreciate my mom.
"And really value and see what she did and what the sacrifice and commitment that she made and how complete it was.”
The Animals actor has found it "really weird" to read letters his mother wrote to her own parents in her early adulthood.
He explained: "This sounds like a crazy thing to say, but it was really weird for me to read these letters, first of all as this young woman, full of life and ambition and dreams and not sure, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll be a social worker, maybe I’ll be a teacher, there’s these protests'.
“But of course, the thing that struck me was: This has nothing to do with me. This woman had her own whole life for 30 years that had zero to do with me.”
Ben was also "struck" by how Chris Anne prioritised Ben and Casey, noting she "did everything" for her sons despite long days at work.
He recalled: "She was a teacher, she worked really hard. She taught elementary school in public school.
"She taught 5th and 6th grade. She’d finish at 2:30, but she never came home until about 5:30 or 6. She worked really hard. And then she came home and did everything, you know?
"And there I was, probably a pain in the a**, outside, didn’t wanna come in, complaining, whatever it was, hard to wrangle, me and my brother.”
Ben and Casey's parents divorced in 1984, when the Argo filmmaker was around 11 years old, and the end of their marriage made him "sad" for her".
He added: "She should have happiness and love.
"[At] the time that we’re talking about, my dad was kind of in bad shape and sort of getting worse, he didn’t get a job, he drank too much, all that kind of stuff, angry, resentful.”
Casey first revealed the brothers had lost their parents as he dedicated his new movie Company to their honour.
Speaking at Venice Film Festival on September 8, he said: "“It’s dedicated to my parents because I lost both my mom and my dad this year, and they were very important to me.
"I really wanted to show this movie to them, and I didn't get to. I think they would have liked it."
