Jennifer Garner just gave an interview to the Hollywood Reporter, where she described in disturbing detail what it's like to be stalked by paparazzi, saying their constant and aggressive presence has given her children "so much anxiety."
"You'd go through a yellow light and 15, 20 cars would go through the red light behind you, driving up on the side of roads, and this is just for [photos of] a mom and a kid," she began.
She noted that photographers used to target her much more than they'd target her ex-husband, Ben Affleck — even though he was more famous than she was when they first started dating:
We lived down a street that was chock-a-block full of actors, much more successful and famous and decorated than me, including Ben, and they'd all go by one by one, no problem, and then I'd go do a school run and it'd be 15 cars going with me.
"I never had a day without them," she continued. "And if I did, if I made it to a park by hiding in the bottom of the pool man's truck or something, then a nanny would see me there and call a number and they'd swarm."
Jennifer also told the Hollywood Reporter about a heartbreaking moment she had this summer, when she was finally able to take her kids to the beach under the guise of face masks. She had to explain to her kids why the beach was usually off-limits for them.
"I told them, 'We'd try to go and we'd just get chased away.' ... You're not just ruining the experience for your family, you're ruining it for everybody [on the beach]. It's like, 'Who wants to have us around?'"
She added that her daughter, Violet, used to have to dodge the paparazzi at her school, and was even kicked off her soccer team because of their constant presence. Jennifer recalled a moment where she invited the police to her home to discuss the issue, and Violet pled with them for help:
Violet's hyper-articulate — she is Ben Affleck's daughter. And she stood up on a chair in a little velvet dress, with her hair a bit back and her glasses on and she didn't say her Rs right, and she said, "We didn't ask for this. We don't want these cameras, they're scary. The men are scary, they knock each other over and it's hard to feel like a kid when you're being chased."
Jennifer concluded by talking about how her children have had to navigate seeing their parents' marriage and divorce become fodder for tabloids.
"When they were smaller and there were things out there that were shocking, my request to them was always, 'Let Dad and I talk you through whatever it is,'" she said. "I'd tell them, 'If you see an image on the front of a magazine, I'll look at it with you and we'll process all the scary feelings that come up together.'"
Jennifer's comments come in the wake of the much-discussed documentary, Framing Britney Spears. And though Jennifer and Britney's stories are quite different, both have described situations where the paparazzi traumatized their children and put them in physical danger.
In 2013, Jennifer gave a testimony to the California legislature about her experience and urged them to pass a bill that would grant children some protections from paparazzi. That bill ultimately passed.
