Jennifer Garner NOT Getting Ben Affleck Into Shape, Despite Reports

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Jennifer Garner is not pushing Ben Affleck to get into shape, despite reports. One tabloid manufactured this untrue claim, and others are now spreading it online. But Gossip Cop can debunk the stories.

According to the National Enquirer, a “flabby” Affleck is “getting whipped back into shape” by his “furious” estranged wife. A so-called “insider” claims Garner was moved to “help” him “because their kids are so concerned about his health.” Now she’s supposedly “working 45-year-old Ben like he’s in boot camp.”

“She’s got Ben doing cardio, weight and resistance exercises,” contends the gossip magazine’s alleged source, who further asserts Garner has “even put him on a detox diet.” But the outlet also suggests the actress has an ulterior motive for pressing him so hard. The publication maintains Garner is “getting a kick out of controlling his workouts and diet” after he “wrecked their marriage with his boozing, gambling and cheating.”

Claims the alleged tipster, “When Ben wants to stop at 100 push-ups, Jen tells him to do 50 more.” This purported snitch adds, “Ben needs to get back into shape to play Batman again, so Jen’s doing him a favor. But she’s also enjoying watching him suffer.” Yet it’s never said just when or where these fitness sessions are supposedly taking place. Garner and Affleck were last seen together at church just over a week ago, and neither was dressed for a workout.

He has spent the last couple of months in Hawaii filming Triple Frontier, and while Garner and their children visited him there, it was with girlfriend Lindsay Shookus whom Affleck got in some exercise by kayaking. In contrast, Garner was seen going on a hike without him. Clearly she’s not controlling his fitness regime.

Additionally, the supermarket tabloid’s untraceable “insider” is either woefully uninformed or perhaps nonexistent, as the actor has no need to “get back into shape to play Batman” at this time. There is no new film featuring the superhero in production right now, and Affleck has even indicated multiple times that he’s not sure if he’ll continue portraying the character. So this premise is transparently false.

Also untrue, Gossip Cop is told by a source who declined to speak on the record, is the notion that Garner is getting Affleck into shape due to their children’s concerns, as well as the contention that she’s trying to make him “suffer.” Simply put, we’re assured that while she absolutely wants the father of her kids to be healthy, Garner doesn’t play a direct role in Affleck’s diet or exercise plans. It should also be noted that the magazine was wrong almost exactly a year ago when it peddled a similar article about Garner putting Affleck through a “booze boot camp,” in which he’d “trim down his tubby physique” to salvage their relationship.

Of course, the couple ended up filing for divorce. What’s worse now is that on top of concocting a suspiciously bogus storyline reminiscent of an old one, the National Enquirer’s sister outlets, Star and RadarOnline, are both regurgitating these new claims online. Unlike Gossip Cop, neither publication made any discernible effort to fact-check the allegations and instead blindly copied them for posts on their websites that are word-for-word the same as the print report. That’s not the work of journalists. It’s the work of lemmings.