Jennifer Garner was a self-proclaimed “nightmare” after welcoming her first baby in 2005.
The actress reflected on the experience in her Allure cover story, published Tuesday, recalling being “all over” her now-17-year-old child, Violet.
“I was such a first-time mom,” the “Alias” alum, 51, explained, joking that the little one “didn’t have a shot.”
Garner explained, “She couldn’t have a free thought — I was all over her. I was a nightmare for everyone around me.”
The “Last Thing He Told Me” star, who is also the mother of Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11, with ex-husband Ben Affleck, said she now has “a lot of faith in” her children.
“Your kids will really figure out who they are and what they are when they’re older, and most likely they will hew toward lovely,” she gushed.
However, Garner acknowledged, “I don’t love every behavior all the time, always. It’s gnarly growing up.”
The Golden Globe winner went on to say that she “knew [she] was going to be” a mom from an early age, as demonstrated by her love of dolls and junior high babysitting company.
“I really could have been a mother in any way,” she told the magazine. “I could have adopted, I could have fostered, but there was no doubt I was going to be a mom.”
While Garner did not speak to her co-parenting relationship with Affleck, whom she finalized her divorce from in 2018, she did note that their kids have only seen his movies.
“They don’t mind watching their dad, but they kind of want me to be their mom,” she explained. “They don’t want to see me upset and women cry more in what we do. And they don’t really want to see me in a romantic thing.”
Affleck, 50, hinted at this in a March Hollywood Reporter interview, saying Violet, Seraphina and Samuel only like films where they can “make fun of” him.
“They just [find] the whole thing kind of preposterous,” the “Air” star said before sharing their opinions of “Armageddon” and “Goodwill Hunting.”
The Oscar winner was married to Garner for 10 years before they separated in 2015.
Affleck went on to wed Jennifer Lopez in 2022. The couple reconnected the previous year, nearly two decades after their previous engagement.
As for Garner, the “13 Going on 30” star has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with businessman John Miller since 2018.
