Ben Affleck Says His Older Two Kids with Ex Jennifer Garner Have “Classic Teenager” Jobs

Ben Affleck’s kids may be the children of two very successful actors, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not teaching them valuable lessons about money—and that they’re not working traditional teenage jobs.

Affleck shares Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. While speaking on the April 22 episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, which was co-hosted by Jenna Bush Hager and Andy Cohen, the actor shared of Violet and Seraphina, “Yeah, my oldest two have jobs. In fact, one just got a job, the kind of classic teenager working a shop job—I won’t say what it is. My older one in college is working and trying to get an internship for the summer.”

Of Samuel—whose request for a $6,000 pair of Dior Air Force 1s from his dad recently went viral—Affleck said, “And yeah, my son, who’s 13, he’s reckoning with that reality right now. He’s looking at no shoes in his closet. Well, he’s got shoes, just no crazy expensive, fancy shoes. And I’m like, ‘Well, if you want that, you can work 1,000 hours.’ You know what I mean? Minimum wage. And once you work 1,000 hours, you may not want to spend that on a pair of sneakers.”

Of the moment, Affleck said, per People, “He wanted these sneakers, and I was like, ‘These sneakers are $6,000, what are you talking about? What are you going to do, mow lawns? You got $6,000?’ He was like, ‘We have the money.’ I was like, ‘I have the money! You’re broke.”

Of his relatable philosophy, Affleck continued, “You love your kids. You want to give them everything and do everything for them, but I think you definitely do them a disservice by not connecting [if] you want something that you want, you have to work for that.”

In the viral video, Affleck told Samuel that, if he wanted them, “That’s a lot of lawns you gotta mow there.” After Affleck said to his son that he was only interested in the sneakers because they were expensive, Samuel retorted, “No, they’re tough! I always said they look good.”

After the video came out, in a March 8 interview with Access Hollywood, Affleck doubled down on his position, jokingly saying, “That’s what happens when you tell a mother— they have to mow a lawn. All of a sudden they don’t want those shoes, and he was like, ‘But I always said they were tough.’ I’m like, ‘Man, you do not need $1,000 shoes.’”

Affleck recently spent the Easter holiday with Garner and their kids, but earlier this month, at the premiere of his new movie The Accountant 2, he was joined by not just his brood, but ex-wife Jennifer Lopez’s kids Max and Emme, as well, which People reported he was “very grateful” for.

“They chose to come support Ben,” a source told the outlet. “That’s the kind of bond he’s built with Jennifer’s kids, and it means a lot to him. He was very grateful for the support.”

While speaking on the red carpet at the premiere, Affleck told Entertainment Tonight, “It’s a great night. The kids are here. Jen’s kids are here. I’m very, very excited. I love the movie and I love when all the kids come out. It’s really fun—it’s exciting.”

He even took a moment to compliment Lopez—who he is now officially divorced from after Lopez filed for divorce last August 20, their second wedding anniversary. “For the record, Jennifer Lopez is spectacular, great to my kids, great ongoing relationship with them. I love her kids. They’re wonderful. She’s [an] enormously important, tremendous person—a lot of integrity—who I adore and am grateful to.” (Friendliest divorced couple ever? Maybe.)

“I’m thrilled that the kids are here with me,” he added. “The relationships that you can have with children like that, it’s the joy of my life. And those kids are amazing, and I’m glad that this is a movie they want to come to.”