What did Ana de Armas say about her relationship with Ben Affleck?
The Cuban-Spanish actress dated Ben Affleck from early 2020 until they split and he got back with old flame Jennifer Lopez.
Ana de Armas has opened up about her short-lived relationship with Ben Affleck and how the pressures of the paparazzi and constantly being in the media eye eventually took its toll. The Cuban-Spanish actress, who moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and starred in several Hollywood productions before getting her big break with the role of Joi in Blade Runner 2049.
In August 2019, she was cast alongside Ben Affleck in Adrian Lyne’s erotic thriller Deep Water, based on the 1957 novel by Patricia Highsmith. She played Melinda Van Allen, wife to Vic (Affleck’s character), a retired robotics engineer. On film, the couple were locked in a loveless, adulterous marriage but off-screen, their romance blossomed despite their age difference (Ana was 33 at the time, Affleck, 14 years her senior at 47).
Hunted by the paparazzi
The LA paparazzi followed the pair wherever they went - when they were out walking their dogs, or out with Affleck’s three children from his marriage to Jennifer Garner: Violet Anne, Seraphina Rose Elisabeth and Samuel. The paparazzi’s constant hounding of the celebrity couple got so bad that Affleck even got a life-size cardboard cut-out of the actress made and left it outside on the front lawn as a message to the skulking photographers, waiting to get their shot.
But by January 2021, it was all over. De Armas split with Affleck before their relationship had reached its first anniversary. She appeared in a video on Claudia Muma’s YouTube channel with a new short bob haircut and the split was reported by People. “Ben is no longer dating Ana. She broke it off. Their relationship was complicated. Ana doesn’t want to be Los Angeles based and Ben obviously has to since his kids live in Los Angeles,” a source explained. Another source close to the pair added, “This is something that was mutual and something that is completely amicable. They are at different points in their lives; there is deep love and respect there. Ben continues to want to work on himself. He has three jobs lined up and he’s a solid father at home. They are both happy with where they are in their lives.”
New partners
Since then, both have found new partners. Affleck is back with his old flame Jennifer Lopez, who dated from 2002 to 2004 while Ana has moved to New York where she is involved in a new relationship with Tinder vice-president Paul Boukadakis.
She told Elle magazine that she made the right move to swap LA for the Big Apple. When asked about her 10-month liaison with Ben Affleck, she gave a concise reply: “Horrible”. But, she added, there was something positive to take from it, “But the good thing is that it was one of the reasons why I left LA. Going through it [myself] confirmed my thoughts about it, [I realised] ‘This is not the place for me to be’ It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out. It’s always the feeling of something that you don’t have, something missing. It’s a city that keeps you anxious”.
In the meantime, Ana has been keeping herself busy. She has played the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominick’s biopic Blonde which is due out in October. Affleck too has remained active, he plays Batman in The Flash, set for general release next summer.