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Ben Affleck and His Son Samuel, 12, Enjoy a Rare Night Out Together

​​​​​​​View Date:2024-12-23 17:04:53

Ben Affleck is one cool dad.

The Gone Girl actor took his son Samuel, 12, to the Los Angeles Lakers' home game against the Toronto Raptors Nov. 10. The duo was all smiles during their rare father-son public outing as they sat courtside to watch the Lakers cruise to a 123-103 victory.

Ben—who shares Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel with ex-wife Jennifer Garner—kept it casual in a gray coat, khaki button-down shirt and gray jeans while Samuel rocked all black. They adorably both wore a matching pair of the same Nike sneakers.

This wasn't the first time that Ben, 52, and Samuel have been spotted at NBA games together. In fact, the preteen has attended several basketball games with his famous parents over the years, most recently when he sat courtside with his father and then-wife Jennifer Lopez in March.

Their latest father-son excursion comes amid Ben's ongoing divorce from the 55-year-old "Love Don't Cost A Thing" singer, who filed for divorce back in August.

Samuel also recently had a bonding moment with his mother and the 13 Going on 30 actress took him to a haunted house for Halloween.

Jennifer, 52, shared a hilarious video of herself going through the spooky attraction with her son Oct. 27. The actress, who is famously private about her children on social media, never showed her son in the clip, but he could be heard several times throughout, including at one point joking to his mom, "Mom you’re breaking my hand, I can’t actually feel my hand."

And, while Jennifer rarely shows her children online, she isn't shy about posting around their big life updates.

The Alias alum commemorated her oldest daughter, Violet's, high school graduation back in May, shared a few photos and videos of herself getting emotional during her ceremony.

"Tell me you have a graduate without telling me you have a graduate," she captioned the post. "Bless our hearts."

In one of the clips, she asked, "How are we going to make it? What are we going to do?"

The next month, the mother of three made sure to also pay tribute to the teachers who have helped her children learn and grow over the years.

"Thank you for caring about my children with me," she wrote on Instagram in June, "for tying their shoes and holding their hands. Thank you for disciplining my kids when they've needed it and for offering more hugs than some children receive in a lifetime."

"I'm sure that the demands and frustrations of the classroom can obfuscate the mission behind your place in it," she added, "but what's more noble than teaching children-not a whole lot, as far as I can tell."

Keep reading for more of Jennifer's best quotes about parenthood.

When it comes to co-parenting, Jennifer Garner will always maintain a cordial relationship with her ex-husband Ben Affleck for the sake of their children: Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.

“It’s not Ben’s job to make me happy," Garner shared in a 2016 Vanity Fair interview. "The main thing is these kids―and we’re completely in line with what we hope for them."

She continued, "Sure, I lost the dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter’s wedding. But you should see their faces when he walks through the door. And if you see your kids love someone so purely and wholly, then you’re going to be friends with that person.”

Though she and Affleck are both successful actors, Garner doesn't want their kids to live inside a Hollywood bubble.

"It's really important for my kids to see that everyone doesn’t have the lives they see in Los Angeles," she told Southern Living. "That doesn’t reflect the rest of the world. I want them to grow up with the Southern values I had―to look at people when they say hello and to stop and smell the roses."

And that's why her parenting style is very hands-on.

“I think teaching your kids anything is a lifelong job and certainly values are something―you can’t just say, ‘Here, have values!’" she previously told E! News. "You have to show them that you have values."

Explaining how setting a good example is the "most important job," the Alias alum added that she and Affleck—who she split with in 2015 after 10 years of marriage—hope that their kids "see and appreciate the work we do."

Of course, there is no one standard way of parenting.

“As much as you think that, ’OK, I’m going to follow what this person says,'" Garner noted during a 2016 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, "it’s not up to you, dude."

Advising parents to "let it go" when it comes to their worries, the 13 Going on 30 star continued, "You’re going to struggle. It’s going to suck—just like for everyone else."

For Garner, the key to maintaining a good structure for her kids is setting up boundaries and rules.

"You just have to do it," she explained to Us Weekly. "It’s not pretty. I don’t think that I’m always the best at it, but I try my best to be consistent and for them to know what they can expect from me."

And when she does experience a roadblock in her parenting journey, Garner believes "every day is a fresh start."

"You always can say, ‘Today, we’re going to try this!'" she told People. "And if it goes horribly, you can say, ‘Today, we’re throwing that out, and we’re trying this!’"

The actress added, "That’s part of what I like about being a mom in general."

Garner's motherhood joy extends into the cinematic universe as well.

"I’m really glad that I’m playing moms," she told Today, "because there’s no more rich time in women’s lives than when you have your babies."

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