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Actor Jennifer Garner has spoken candidly about her divorce from actor Ben Affleck, describing the separation as "hard" and reflecting on the emotional toll of losing a partnership and breaking up a family, according to E! News.

In a recent interview, the 53-year-old actress looked back on her 2015 split from Affleck, which was legally finalised in 2018, and said public attention was not the most difficult part of the process.

"You have to be smart about what you can and can't handle, and I could not handle what was out there," Garner said, gesturing to the distance. "But what was out there was not what was hard," as quoted by E! News.

She explained, "The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard."

Garner said she deliberately avoids paying attention to gossip or speculation about her personal life, especially when it involves her children. "It doesn't serve me to take in gossip about myself or anyone else, much less my kids, so I don't do it," she said, as per the outlet.

Despite the challenges, Garner said she and Affleck, both 53, have reached a place of calm and mutual respect while co-parenting their three children--Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13. She described their current dynamic as one marked by "peace and equanimity."

Reflecting on her life now, Garner said, "So much about my life surprises me. That I'm still working, that I'm still alive, that my kids are healthy, that my work relationships--which are more like familial friendships--are still the same as they were 25 or 30 years ago, but richer and deeper and stronger. It's all a gift."

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The Alias alum, who has been dating tech CEO John Miller since 2018, said she feels surrounded by love at this stage of her life. "I think it's important for women to know, when they think, 'Oh, I'll never see that, I'll never have that feeling, I'll never be friends with this person again,' that time is the opportunity," she said. "Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends," as quoted by E! News.