Ben Affleck has spoken publicly about the deaths of both his parents, saying the losses changed how he sees his childhood. The 54-year-old actor appeared on the premiere episode of Kerry Washington’s podcast Street You Grew Up On, released Wednesday, September 30. His father, Timothy Affleck, died in April. His mother, Chris Anne Affleck, died on June 2 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 83.
What Affleck Told Washington
Washington is Affleck’s costar from the film Animals. “My parents just died, both of them,” he told her. He said the deaths have changed how he thinks about the past. “It’s sort of a big thing, and it’s caused me to start thinking about my own childhood in ways that [have] been a little bit different,” he said.
He spoke most about his mother. “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,” he said.
The Letters He Found
After his mother died, Affleck discovered letters she had written before he was born. They were addressed to her own parents and showed him a side of her he had never known firsthand. In them she was a young woman living in California, weighing a career as a social worker or teacher, and traveling to Mississippi for protests. He described her as “full of life and ambition and dreams.” Ben Affleck Opens Up About Discovering His Mom’s Letters After Her Death on Kerry Washington’s New Podcast +2
“It was so interesting to me because all I knew was a person who just made me and my brother the absolute most important center of her life,” he said.
Affleck said he was “struck” by how well she balanced working and being a wholly present parent. He recalled that she finished at school around 2:30 but rarely got home before 5:30 or 6. He also said she built the same kind of close relationship with her grandchildren.
A Marriage That Made Him Sad for His Mother
Affleck also spoke about his parents’ marriage. He said it made him sad on his mother’s behalf, and described his father at that time as struggling, out of work and drinking too much. Timothy Affleck was not available to answer, and the account is Ben Affleck’s own.
How the Two Deaths Became Public
The news came out in pieces. It was revealed in July that Chris died on June 2. Affleck’s brother, Casey Affleck, 51, said in early September that their father had also died earlier this year.
Casey spoke at the Venice Film Festival while promoting his movie Company, which he co-wrote, directed and stars in. “It’s dedicated to my parents because I lost both my mom and my dad this year, and they were very important to me,” he said.
He added a note about what the film meant to him. “I really wanted to show this movie to them, and I didn’t get to. I think they would have liked it,” Casey said.
Chris Affleck’s Last Months
Chris Affleck’s Legacy obituary says doctors told her last December she had six months to live. Her final wish was to see her grandson’s high school graduation. She went to the ceremony in May and died in her sleep days later, according to the obituary.
The obituary describes her grandchildren as “the animating force of her last two decades.” Timothy and his ex-wife Chris are survived by five grandchildren: Indiana, 22, Violet, 20, Atticus, 18, Fin, 17, and Sam, 14.
A Teacher With a Harvard Degree
Chris graduated from Harvard University and worked as a public school teacher for 35 years. She retired in 2008. Affleck described her career to The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. “My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school,” he said.
Her obituary says she became socially conscious early in life. It says she “made the most of an elite education while remaining skeptical of the tightly cloistered world it represented.”
That history gives Affleck’s remarks on the podcast more weight. The woman he described as a devoted teacher and parent is the same one who, in her letters, was still working out what to do with her life.
Timothy Affleck Stayed Out of the Spotlight
Timothy Affleck kept a low public profile. He appeared once on screen, in Casey’s 2010 mockumentary I’m Still Here, which starred Joaquin Phoenix. Neither son has said the date in April on which he died.
What Happens Next
Affleck’s comments on the podcast are the first public account he has given of the two losses. The episode is available now. Casey’s film Company, dedicated to their parents, is out and being promoted. The brothers have not announced a memorial or any further public tribute.
