Actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck has gotten real about what he really feels about the end of his marriage to Jennifer Garner after a long separation.

Years after their public break-up, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor said in an interview that he regretted divorcing Garner, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Speaking to The New York Times, the “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” actor called their divorce “the biggest regret of my life.”

Ben Affleck Confesses About Breaking Marriage With Jennifer Garner: “My Drinking Created More Martial Problems”

He elaborated his statement: “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”

Despite his regret, Affleck was determined to focus on the positives.

“It’s not particularly healthy for me to obsess over the failures – the relapses – and beat myself up,” he said. “I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move forward.”

On the causes of his marital issues, the 47-year-old actor owned up to his drinking problems.

“I drank relatively normally for a long time,” he confessed. “What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”

“People with compulsive behaviour, and I am one, have this kind of basic discomfort all the time that they’re trying to make go away,” he explained further. “You’re trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse. Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can’t break. That’s at least what happened to me.”

Affleck and Garner, who worked together in 2001’s “Pearl Harbor” and 2003’s “Daredevil”, tied the knot in 2005. They have three children together, Violet (14), Seraphina (11) and 7-year-old Samuel. They parted ways in 2015, before filing for divorce in 2017 and having it finalised in October 2018.

For Elon Musk, his relationship with his transgender daughter has been a tense one in recent years.And his latest outburst, where he called Vivian Jenna Wilson, 19, a 'communist' who thinks 'anyone rich is evil', has suggested that their relationship has reached a new low.

The 19-year-old legally changed her gender to female and her name from 'Xavier' to Vivian Jenna Wilson last year, while revealing in court filings she 'no longer wishes to be related' to Musk 'in any way'.

While the South African billionaire was 'generally sanguine' about his daughter's transition, he has since slammed her, calling her a 'communist' and blaming her political views on the expensive private high school she attended.

But according to an excerpt from an upcoming biography of Musk, published this week in the Wall Street Journal, it has been claimed that the Tesla CEO's rift with Vivian 'pained him more than anything in his life since the infant death of his firstborn child Nevada,' who died just 10 weeks old of sudden infant death syndrome.

Further confusing matters, he famously tweeted in 2020: 'I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.' And: 'Pronouns suck.'

So who exactly is Vivian Jenna Wilson? MailOnline takes a deep dive into her life to find out who she is and why her and her father have such a strained relationship.

Vivian Jenna Wilson, pictured, filed a petition to legally change her gender to female just three days after her birthday

Elon Musk has publicly lambasted his daughter for her political views, calling her a 'communist'

Vivian, who was called 'Xavier' at birth, was born to Elon Musk and his then-wife Justine in 2004

Who is Elon Musk's daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson?

Vivian, who was called Xavier at birth, was born a twin with her brother Griffin in 2004 in California three years before her younger siblings, Kai, Saxon and Damian, all of whom are 17.

All of Musk's children attended the wildly expensive Crossroads K-12 school in Santa Monica, where annual tuition costs up to $50,000.

Though he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her, and her siblings', education, the pair reportedly are not close, with text messages revealing that she tried to hide her true gender identity from her dad for several years.

On top of this, he has since publicly lambasted her and her political views, claiming she believes that all rich people are evil.

Vivian, along with all of her siblings, was educated at the wildly expensive Crossroads school in Santa Monica

Why did Vivian Jenna Wilson change her name?

Vivian, who was called Xavier at birth, officially adopted her mother, Justine's, maiden name at the age of 18 in 2022, according to court filings.

She filed a petition to change both her name and legal gender, and was quoted as saying she 'no longer wishes to be related' to her father 'in any way.'

A Santa Monica judge issued a new birth certificate that reflected her changed name, and gender, while their ruling simply stated: 'Xavier Alexander Musk to Vivian Jenna Wilson. The gender of the petitioner is changed from male to female.'

Vivian filed the petition just three days after her 18th birthday, though the court documents weren't made public until the day after Fathers Day.

In a tweet the night her daughter's petition was granter, mother Justine said: ''I had a weird childhood,' my 18 year old said to me.'

'I can't believe I'm as normal-seeming as I am.' 'I said, 'I'm very proud of you.' 'I'm proud of myself!''

Meanwhile, on Fathers Day, Musk tweeted prior to the revelation of her filings: 'I love all my kids so much.'

A private woman, she was not spotted in public until several months after her petition was granted.

She was seen on a quick shopping trip in Santa Monica, donning a brown T-shirt with a yellow pattern on it, black sweatpants, and a pair of sneakers. She wore a face mask and kept her long, flowing blonde hair loose.

Musk has openly admitted that he and his daughter are not close any more

Why did Elon Musk call Vivian Jenna Wilson a communist?

Elon Musk sent her to a wildly expensive Santa Monica K-12 school called Crossroads, which costs parents $50,000 a year to send their children there.

He partly blamed her education at the progressive California school as the reason for her political views, telling his biographer: 'She went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil.'

He also blamed 'neo-Marxist' colleges for the rift between himself and Vivian, once telling the FT in 2022 that she refused to be a part of his life because of the supposed takeover of elite institutions by left-wing academics.

Justine Wilson was married to Musk between 2000 and 2008

What is Elon Musk's relationship with Vivian Jenna Wilson like?

While he has not said much about his relationship with his daughter, what he has said paints a painful picture of estrangement.

Vivian reportedly came out as transgender via text to her aunt when she was 16, but implored her to keep her gender identity from her father:  'Hey, I'm transgender, and my name is now Jenna. Don't tell my dad.'

Musk said during an interview with the FT in 2020 that while his relationship with his daughter 'may change... I have very good relationships with all the others [children].'

'Can't win them all,' he added.

More recently, he told his biographer that his attempts at winning her over have not been successful.

'I've made many overtures, but she doesn't want to spend time with me,' he said.