Jennifer Garner Never Used Josh Duhamel To Make Ben Affleck Jealous, Despite Report A Year Ago

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Jennifer Garner never used Josh Duhamel to make Ben Affleck jealous, despite a false report published a year ago. Gossip Cop is taking a look back at this bust to see how our debunking has held up over time. 12 months have gone by, and it’s apparent there was no romance blossoming between the Love, Simon co-stars, just as we rightly said.

But on April 20, 2017, we called out the National Enquirer for claiming Garner was going out of her way to flirt with Duhamel as they filmed Love, Simon, which at the time was known as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The shoot was taking place in the wake of Garner and Affleck filing for divorce, leading the tabloid to quote a so-called “pal” of the actress as saying, “Josh is exactly what Jen needs right now.”

The gossip magazine’s supposed source went on to vaguely assert Duhamel was “making her see things in a whole new light.” Meanwhile, Affleck was described as “insanely jealous,” in part because “Josh is even better looking than he is.” The alleged tipster maintained to the outlet that Garner was set on “ramping up her flirting with Josh” and was getting a “thrill out of making Ben jealous.”

But contrary to the publication’s contentions, nothing was going on between the co-stars. A trustworthy source close to Garner assured Gossip Cop on the condition of anonymity that there was “no truth” to claims she was not flirting with Duhamel to make Affleck jealous. As we noted back then, Duhamel was still married during the production. Duhamel and wife Fergie didn’t announce their split until September, roughly five months later, and their breakup had nothing to do with a nonexistent flirtation with Garner.

In fact, last fall Garner confessed that she was not even “interested” in dating. Even earlier this month, “Entertainment Tonight” reported that while Garner wants the next person she dates to be “in it for the long run,” she’s still in “no rush to return to the dating scene.” And while the tabloids again tried to link Garner to Duhamel this year, the actor himself actually shot down such claims on multiple occasions.

Last month for example, Duhamel acknowledged Garner is an “incredible woman,” but complained about the false narrative being spread about them. He told E! Online, “It does truly amaze me what some of the things that are printed. It’s like, how is that even legal?” The actor also noted that they only filmed together for “a week and a half, two weeks.”

Surely if Garner was actually trying to make Affleck “jealous,” she and Duhamel wouldn’t have shut down the romance rumors. And she would’ve made a point to be seen with him apart from shooting and promoting their film. But Garner and Duhamel have never once been seen together in a non-work capacity. Nor she has been seen moving on with any other guy, even though Affleck is in a relationship with Lindsay Shookus. Clearly, the National Enquirer story was entirely wrong.