The glare of the public eye was just a little too intense for Ana de Armas when she was living in Los Angeles and in a relationship with Ben Affleck.
In an interview for Elle’s August 2022 cover, the actor said that all the attention she received from the media and the paparazzi is “one of the reasons why I left L.A.,” explaining that it eventually got so “horrible” she had to move. De Armas had already lived in the city for seven years before getting together with Affleck and saw firsthand how her famous friends had coped with that level of public scrutiny. But experiencing it herself, she said, confirmed once and for all that “this is not the place for me to be. It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out.” She added that living there made her feel “anxious” all the time as there’s “always the feeling of something that you don’t have, something missing.”
Affleck and de Armas first began dating at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic after starring in the film Deep Water together and would be photographed almost daily out walking their dogs or grabbing coffee together. However, the pair decided to call it quits in January 2021. A source told People the reason for the split was that the Blonde star no longer wanted to live in Los Angeles full time, while Affleck wanted to remain near his three children he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. The breakup was apparently amicable, however, as the insider explained, “They are in different points in their lives; there is deep love and respect there. They are both happy with where they are in their lives.”
Following that breakup, Ben Affleck rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez from 20 years before, proposing for a second time in April 2022. Ana de Armas has also since moved on and is now dating Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis. According to Elle, they met during the pandemic through a mutual friend and, because so many places were still closed at the time, spent their first few dates at each other’s homes, drinking wine and getting to know one another. And now she and Boukadakis are sharing an apartment in New York City.
This post originally ran on Vanity Fair.
