Some hot and heavy couples are torn when September interrupts their summer flight. For Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, it is a case of reality that ruins their love pandemic.
“The quarantine was unique because they had periods of downtime and even met spending time at home,” a source who knows Affleck and de Armas told The Post. “But once the work started, things started to change.”
De Armas has just signed up for the film “The Gray Man” with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling, while Affleck will star in the next adaptation of George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar.”
After months of falling in love – with dog walks full of PDAs and coffee in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood – it was reported this week that the two had given up.
Representatives for Affleck and de Armas declined to comment.
Rumors had first spread about a breakup when they were not spending their vacation together and de Armas went home to Havana, Cuba.
For de Armas, LA is just a job. She owns a house in Cuba, where her family still lives and considers it her home, according to friends.
“He is here for work reasons; like all actors, she lives wherever her work takes her, ”said one of the Armas.
“Ana has decided she doesn’t want to live in Los Angeles and Ben wants to be close to his family,” said the source, who knows both stars of Affleck’s three young children with former Jennifer Garner. “His priority is to be rooted in LA. They are in different places [in their lives]. ”
There was also the problem that – as Page Six reported – de Armas, 32, wants to have children of his own, while, friends said, Affleck, 48, does not want to have more many children.
And merging with an established family is not always an easy task.
“Ana is fabulous and the children loved her. I think that any configuration is difficult to be a person who enters into a relationship like this “, said the source who knows the couple.
“That’s why Ben and Lindsay broke up – his children will always be a priority,” added sources in Affleck’s story with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus, whom he met in 2017-2018, and again in 2019 after going to rehab for alcohol abuse. (A representative for Shookus did not comment.)
The Oscar winner spoke openly about his battle of sobriety.
In February 2020, he told The New York Times: “I started drinking every day. I would come back from work and start drinking and I would just sit there and drink until I went out on the couch “, acknowledging that a public relapse at a Halloween party in 2019 was embarrassing for him and his children.
But insiders also say that despite his past problems, Affleck is a devoted and involved father.
They also say that Garner, who is described as an extremely protective mother, approved of de Armas because she seemed to keep Affleck on a uniform keel.
Affleck and de Armas met on the set of the thriller “Deep Water”, which filmed in 2019, but saw its release date pushed into the summer of 2021. They were seen on a romantic getaway in Cuba in March 2020 before heading to Costa Rica and then LA just before the first blockade began.
The pandemic helped them get closer quickly, as a close source told The Post at the time: “Ben was on stage. [of ‘The Last Duel’] . . . and Ana had to be on a world tour [for the James Bond film ‘No Time to Die’].
“Spending so much time together is a real blessing.”
De Armas was seen in photos wearing what looked like an engagement ring, but was quickly revealed as a prop for “Deep Water.”
De Armas moved into the house of actor Brentwood and, in June, planted a cardboard cut on his lawn with his cheek – it seems to be a way to troll paparazzi.
This week, a masked man who looked like Affleck’s acting brother, Casey Affleck, was seen throwing the cutout in a trash can. Casey denied it was him, but told Entertainment Tonight about the breakup:
“The reality is that I think this year has been very difficult for people in relationships. . . I think Ana is just the sweetest, funniest, smartest, most charming person. I don’t think he’ll have a problem meeting anyone else. ”
Casey, who is divorced, added: “And I’ll be there to take Ben through this, but I don’t think he’ll have any problems. My advice to them would be, “Yes, think long and hard [the decision to break up], because quarantine is not fun if you are alone. ‘”
Even though de Armas has moved and is said to be looking for a home, far from Cuba, in West Hollywood, the source knows her and Affleck believes that any hope may not be lost.
“They had a very solid relationship and they are really upset that they have reached a place where they have to break up,” the source said. “There is a lot of love there. They were very good to each other and I think that will lead to a friendship. ”