Ben Affleck Talked About Losing Both His Parents For the First Time
· Thought Catalog
Updated 3 minutes ago, September 30, 2026
Ben Affleck is reflecting on grief, family, and the parts of his mother he never fully knew. On the September 30 episode of Kerry Washington’s “Street You Grew Up On” podcast, the actor opened up about losing both of his parents this year — and how their deaths have reshaped the way he understands his own childhood. His father, Timothy Affleck, died in April. His mother, Chris Anne Affleck, died on June 2 at 83, after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
It was only after his mother’s death that Affleck came to know a version of her that existed long before he did. Going through her things, he found letters she’d written to her own parents before he was born — letters in which she described wanting to teach and traveling to Mississippi to take part in protests. Reading them, he said, introduced him to the ambitions and experiences she’d carried into motherhood, a life that had been fully formed before it ever revolved around her sons.
Chris Anne went on to teach in public schools for 35 years before retiring in 2008. Affleck admitted he’d long taken for granted just how much she did for him and his brother, Casey, holding down a career while raising them both. Now a parent himself — he shares three children with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner: Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14 — he sees the depth of that sacrifice differently.
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