SerpApi.Org
According to Jennifer Garner, the paparazzi of the aughts were so desperate for photos of her, Ben Affleck, and their children that they were putting everyone involved in danger. On Tuesday’s episode of Shut Up Evan, Garner told Evan Ross Katz what it was like to be hounded by the paps when her children were young. Spoiler: It sounds awful.
,“It was a danger to everyone around us,” Garner said. “If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would go through the red behind me. They would drive up onto people’s lawns, even on a hillside. We were trying to have our little one play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars coming. So it wasn’t just about us. It was just an industry that had gotten out of control.”
,Garner said that she saw children “getting knocked over coming out of preschool by photographers who were so hungry to get at me or Ben.” Even though Garner lived in a neighborhood with more famous people, it was her and her kids the paps wanted. “They wouldn’t follow Ben; they wouldn’t follow Matt Damon,” she said. “They were like, ‘There’s the chick with the kids.’”
,In 2013, Halle Berry led the charge on a California anti-paparazzi bill that sought to prevent celebrity children from being harassed. Garner testified in front of the California legislature in support of the bill, sharing a harrowing story of how a swarm of paparazzi allowed a stalker to get too close. “There are violent, mentally ill stalkers who can now get close to my kids by simply following mobs of photographers and blending in — like the very man who threatened to cut the babies out of my belly. Who was arrested waiting behind our daughter’s preschool, standing among the throng of paparazzi,” Garner said. That bill passed and became California law.
,Nowadays, Garner’s paparazzi situation is more chill, but still pretty weird. The actress said she has two guys who she sees every day who have been assigned to her for 25 years. “I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy,” she said. “We have an odd respect for each other.” As an example, Garner shared that when she was being followed by someone she thought might hurt her, it was her main paparazzo she looked to for help. “I knew him and trusted him,” she said. “There’s kind of a Stockholm syndrome thing.”
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