Ben Affleck Says His ‘Life Is Better’ When He’s Around His Children: ‘I’m Happier’

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“I will be long dead and someone will ask my kids, ‘What was your dad like?’ and that is when I will know what my life was worth,” Ben Affleck, 49, said on the Dec. 17 episode of Good Morning America, while admitting that his “life is better” when he’s around his three children — 16-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Seraphina and 9-year-old Samuel — whom he parents with ex Jennifer Garner.

“The only biography that needs anything is written on the hearts of your kids,” Ben said, as he shared how his children’s opinions of him are what matter the most. Throughout his 25-year career, Ben has always been open and honest about the struggles he’s endured in life, including alcoholism, but he’s a firm believer in second chances.

“I feel like at the end of the day everybody needs second chances. I don’t know anybody who does everything right. We all fail. That’s the truth,” he said, before adding, “There aren’t enough movies, there isn’t enough success, not enough likes on Instagram. Those things will never fill you up or make you happy.”

And for Ben, who rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez just a few months ago, it’s family that fulfills him. “My life is better and I am happier the more I am around my kids,” he told GMA. “We all want to pass on the best of ourselves to our children. I don’t care who you are, I’m quite sure you feel at some point in your life you’ve taken missteps, nobody wants to transfer that to our children and that is a real task that everybody faces, whatever those issues are.”

Earlier this week, Ben came under fire for sharing on the Howard Stern Show that his marriage issues with Jennifer Garner, 49, were “part of why I started drinking … because I was trapped.”

“I was like ‘I can’t leave ’cause of my kids, but I’m not happy, what do I do?’ What I did was drink a bottle of scotch and fall asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution,” he said during the interview, but he later clarified his comments on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Dec. 15, saying, “I would never want my kids to think I would ever say a bad word about their mom.”

Clearly, Ben’s children — as well as their opinions about him — do mean a lot to him.