Jennifer Garner details ‘Stockholm syndrome’ she has with paparazzi who followed her for 20 years

Jennifer Garner has revealed how she feels about the paparazzi who have been in her life for two decades, and how she ended up forming a strange relationship with them as they went to great lengths to picture her family.

The 54-year-old explained the strained time of her life on the Shut Up Evan podcast on July 21, which delved into her marriage with Ben Affleck from 2005 to 2018, who she shares children, Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 12, with.

The pair met on set of 2003’s Daredevil flick, and have been seen recently together with their children, seemingly co-parenting well.

However, while they were together, there was a lot more focus on their lives, and Garner says this even impacted other people around them.

Even their safety.

Because she was so used to the paps, and there were two who have been constantly assigned to her for so long, she said she has a 'very interesting relationship' with one of them.

“I have two [photographers] every day who’ve been assigned to me for 20-plus years, 25 years,” Garner said. “I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy. I’ve done anything to ask him to leave, and at the same time, we have an odd respect for each other.”

“We’ve had some really real-life moments together,” the actress shared. “I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was gonna hurt me, and I ran to him because I knew him and trusted him, and I knew he and I would be OK.”

Garner added: “There’s kind of a Stockholm syndrome thing and at the same time, I’ve called the cops on him a million times and been like, ‘Can you please just give me a walk around the block with my kids and my dog?’”

Recalling the moments where she was surrounded by people with cameras during this time of yo-yoing her relationship with these men, she said: “If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would go through the red [light] behind me. They would drive up onto people’s lawns, even on a hillside."

Garner then revealed a time when she was asked to 'stop' by one of their children's soccer organizers due to the paparazzi.

“We were trying to have our little one play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars coming,” she said. “It wasn’t just about us, it was just an industry that had gotten out of control.”

However, it wasn't just the games – there were instances where it could have potentially stopped her children from seeking medical help.

She told host Evan Ross Katz: “If you show up and you’re trying to get into the pediatrician and you have a sick kid on your shoulder and you’re scared, and you can’t get into the door because you’re blocked by photographers, there’s something wrong with that, and the kids are paying the price.”

Jennifer Garner reveals the hard truths of living with the paparazzi

🎙️: Shut Up Evan, only on Netflix pic.twitter.com/QFcZsgaqcf

— Netflix (@netflix) July 21, 2026

Recalling an instance where paparazzi were a risk to other children around her, she noted there was a time where 'kids were getting knocked over coming out of preschool by photographers who were so hungry to get to me or to Ben, trying to get to our kids'.

But she was quick to say they appeared to be hungrier to get to her when she was accompanying the kids, and not her husband, and not other famous faces she says are 'more famous' than her.

Now, her kids are largely grown up, but interest in her life continues.