Photo: Entertainment Tonight
This is...messy.
By Emily Blackwood — Written on Jul 20, 2017
Oh Ben Affleck. The man is seemingly incapable of smoothly transitioning from one relationship to the next.
He almost had us fooled though.
When it was initially reported that he was dating Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus, we were so proud. Go Ben! You waited until after your divorce with Jennifer Garner was finalized to start publicly dating again! You've grown so much!
Eh, not so much.
It turns out, Lindsay and Ben may have been seeing each other for three years.
So no, the actor has not matured or changed in any way. He still can't seem to not cheat on whoever he's with.
Which reminds me; Lindsay, you're better off.
According to Us Weekly, the pair has been seeing each other since 2015, while he was still very much married to Jen and raising their three kids.
“Ben and Lindsay started their affair about three years ago, just a few months after she became a mom. They were not casually dating — they were having a full-blown affair,” said the source. "They were sleeping together, sending each other cute texts and meeting up whenever they could."
To make matters even worse, Lindsay was also married when she started seeing Ben. Her now ex-husband, Kevin Miller, found out about the affair way after Jen did in 2015.
The source said Jen and Kevin were obviously devastated.
And that's not even the end of this horrible story. Now there are rumors that Ben's mistress / girlfriend / other woman Lindsay cheated on him during their affair by having an affair with his friend Jon Hamm.
Is that like affair-inception, or does one affair cancel out the other? How many affairs can you have at one time? Is it even considered an affair if you're already in an affair?
So many things I'd love to know about this immoral dynamic, but for now let's focus on the details, facts, and rumors (okay, mostly rumors):
1. Lindsay and Jon hooked up during a brief time when she wasn't seeing Ben.
Apparently during their "break" — like can you even call it that when you're actually in a real marriage — Lindsay got together with "Mad Men" star and hottie-mchottie Jon Hamm. They had both just gotten out of long term relationships (unclear which one of Shookus' we'd be referring to) and had a brief fling.
This obviously made Ben jealous because a) that's his mistress and b) Jon and Ben are bros. My guess is that they are not bros any longer.
She was also linked to Chris Noth, from "Sex and the City," who was ALSO married during that time. C'mon people.
2. Lindsay and Ben's affair was the reason for both of their divorces.
The insider who told Us Weekly about the long affair, also claims that it was the reason for Ben and Jen's divorce.
"Lindsay was the main reason that Jen decided to leave Ben. They had a multitude of problems, but this was the breaking point for Jen. This wasn’t just sex, this was infatuation and a full-blown relationship that Ben and Lindsay were having while they were both married."
However, a source close to Ben argued that he and Lindsay had only been dating for a few months and that it wasn't the reason for their divorce.
Unsurprisingly, the affair also ended Lindsay's four-year marriage to Miller. They separated in 2014, but Miller didn't find out about the affair until six months ago. Though he was hoping they could reconcile for their daughter, he believes Ben was the reason she left.
3. Jen confronted Lindsay about the affair.
Ben and Lindsay's secret affair didn't remain a secret for very long. Jen learned about her ex-hubby's infidelity after seeing Ben had made several big jewelry purchase, and Jen had no new jewelry.
According to a source, Jen met face-to-face with Ben's mistress and demand that she returned the jewelry.
“Lindsay says she’d return it," the source said, "but only if Ben asked for it back.”
Well, it sounds like that ballsy move worked in Lindsay's favor — until she inevitably becomes the mistress herself.