As you’ve likely heard by now, Ben Affleck is dating Lindsay Shookus, a 37-year-old Saturday Night Live producer, whom he met while preparing for an appearance on the show.
The narrative, as presented by those on Team Affleck, goes something like this:
Jennifer Garner was the woman Ben was supposed to marry.
After that failed experiment, he found love with Lindsay, his bonafide soulmate.
Ben and Lindsay are both Northeasterners (she hails from the frigid climes of Buffalo; Ben, obviously, is from Boston); they’re both showbiz insiders who never fell in love with the glitz and glamour of fame; and their shared love of sarcastic humor helped them to click instantly.
Ben and Lindsay reportedly helped one another rise from the ashes of their respective failed marriages – which may help explain that ill-advised Phoenix tattoo on Ben’s back.
But there are those who claim that that convenient version of events is a fiction created by Ben’s PR team, designed to cover up the ugly truth:
Ben cheated on Garner with Shookus, and the affair led to the end of his marriage.
Entertainment Tonight has assembled a timeline of Ben and Lindsay’s time together, assembled from various reports from reputable sources such as People magazine.
According to ET’s version of events, Ben and Lindsay met in 2013, when Ben hosted the show’s 38th season finale.
Shortly thereafter, Ben and Lindsay were reportedly spotted getting “flirty” with one another at the premiere of the Sandra Bullock-Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat.
Interestingly, this was the same year that the Affleck-directed drama Argo took home Best Picture at the Oscars, and Ben drew some mild criticism for talking about how “marriage takes work” in his acceptance speech.
Insiders say the relationship between Ben and Lindsay continued, but never progressed beyond the flirtatious stage … until 2015.
It was at that point that Affleck and Shookus “full-on had an affair,” according to a source cited by People.
“They would fly back and forth, but he would mostly visit her in New York. They didn’t hide.”
“Both of them were married at the time. They were having secret rendezvous every time he came in to New York City and other places, too,” claims a second source.
“Both of them were cheating on their spouses so they were very careful about it,” the insider adds.
Us Weekly offers an even more scandalous account, claiming that Ben and Lindsay’s affair began just months after she welcomed her first child with her then-husband, Kevin Miller.
In June of 2015, Affleck and Garner announced their separation.
In April of this year, Jen finally filed for divorce from Ben.
And earlier this month, of course, Affleck went public with his relationship with Shookus.
We may never know for sure if Shookus played a direct role in the end of Ben and Jen’s marriage, but at the very least, it seems she was a willing shoulder for Ben to cry on.
