By
- Kelly Corbett | kcorbett@syracuse.com
Jennifer Garner opened up this week about her unusual relationship with the photographers (a.k.a the paparazzi) who have documented her daily life for more than 20 years
“I have two every day who’ve been assigned to me for 20-plus years, 25 years,” Garner said on Tuesday’s episode of Evan Ross Katz’s podcast, “Shut Up Evan.”
She explained that she has a unique bond with one of the photographers. “It’s really interesting. I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy. … We have an odd respect for each other. We’ve had some really real-life moments together.”
Garner described a time when, despite having tried everything to get him to leave over the years, she felt unsafe and turned to him for help
“I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was going to hurt me, and I ran to him because I knew him and trusted him, and I knew that he and I would be OK,” Garner said
The actor acknowledged the contradictory nature of the dynamic, comparing it to a “kind of a Stockholm Syndrome thing.” But while they have shared genuine moments, she has also called the police on him “a million times” to request privacy while walking her children and dog
Garner further explained that her three children with ex-husband Ben Affleck — Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14 — were often the paparazzi’s primary focus. She explained that photographers frequently bypassed Affleck and Matt Damon to follow her because she was with the children more
This constant surveillance around the “13 Going on 30″ star’s life has created dangerous situations involving her kids at school. Garner described incidents where photographers knocked children over at a preschool and noted that one of her children had to leave a soccer league because of the heavy traffic surrounding the area
“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.”
