Mega movie star worth $150m surprises the world with this example of instilling values in his kids

Hollywood star Ben Affleck has discussed a recent viral clip in which he can be seen point-blank refusing to buy his teenaged son $6,000 sneakers.

“A lot of lawns you’ve got to mow!”

In the March 3 video, which has accrued over a million views on the TikTok account Got Sole, 13-year-old Samuel eyes up a pair of Nike Air Jordans made in collaboration with the luxury fashion house Dior. “They’re tough," he tells his father. “I’ve always said they look good!”

Affleck responds to Samuel, the youngest of the Oscar winner’s three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: “That’s a lot of lawns you’ve got to mow, there!”

“I have the money - you’re broke!”

Speaking this week on the NBC TV show Today with Jenna & Friends, Affleck stressed that he would have done his son a “disservice” by buying him the eye-wateringly expensive kicks, even if the 52-year-old can comfortably afford them.

“[Samuel] was like, ‘We have the money,’” recalled Affleck, whose net worth is estimated at about $150 million. “And I was like, ’I have the money - you’re broke! As far as I know, you haven’t lent me $5,000.’

“Listen, you love your kids and you want to give them everything and do everything for them.

“But I think you definitely do them a disservice by not connecting [them to the idea that if there is] something meaningful that you want, you have to work for that.”

Affleck added that his two other children - Violet Anne, 19, and Seraphina Rose, 16 - are both now earning money for themselves.

“My oldest two have jobs,” he said. “One just got a job - the kind of classic, teenager-working-in-a-shop job. I won’t say what it is… And my oldest one, who’s in college, is working and trying to get an internship for the summer and stuff.

“And my son, who’s 13, is reckoning with that reality right now, as he sits looking at no shoes in his closet. Well, he’s got shoes - just no crazily expensive, fancy shoes.”

When is The Accountant 2 out in the U.S.?

Affleck was appearing on Today with Jenna & Friends as he promotes his new film The Accountant 2, an action thriller that is the sequel to 2016’s The Accountant.

Directed by Gavin O’Conner, The Accountant 2 stars Affleck alongside John Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Danielle Pineda and J.K. Simmons. The movie is out in U.S. movie theaters today, Friday April 25.

The Accountant 2 - watch the official trailer:

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