All About Ben Affleck’s Parents, Chris Anne Boldt and Timothy Affleck

Ben’s dad Timothy inspired his love of literature and mom Chris Anne encouraged his acting dreams

Ben Affleck has been through highs and lows with his parents, Christopher “Chris” Anne Boldt and Timothy Affleck.

Shortly after the couple welcomed Ben in 1972, they relocated from California to Massachusetts. Their younger son Casey Affleck was born in 1975, and they went on to raise their kids in Cambridge, a neighborhood outside of Boston. Their childhood was not always easy, and by the time Ben was 12, Chris Anne and Timothy filed for divorce.

Timothy, who was an alcoholic, then moved across the country to California, while Chris Anne took charge of raising Ben and Casey. Though they credit their mother with giving them a sense of normalcy in a turbulent time, their father’s absence left a lasting impact.

Still, Ben has said he had positive early memories of him: The actor noted that his dad gave him his “love of literature” and imparted skills that have helped him progress far in his career — of which Timothy is proud.

“Both of my sons are hard workers. They have a tremendous amount of empathy, they don't forget where they came from, they're very kind and generous. Those are the qualities that I value,” Timothy told Grazia Daily.

Here’s everything to know about Ben Affleck’s parents, Christopher Anne “Chris” Boldt and Timothy Affleck.

Chris Anne and Timothy raised Ben in Massachusetts

Chris Anne and Timothy were living in California when they welcomed their older son, Ben. When he was 3, the family relocated to Massachusetts, around the time their second son, Casey, was born. The couple raised Ben and Casey in the Central Square area of Cambridge.

“We’d just run around in the street and get in trouble. Throw firecrackers off the library roof, go down and play baseball, run around throwing rocks at each other, play football in the street,” Casey told Boston Magazine. “There were a lot of kids on the street where I grew up. It was very interracial and it was working class.”

Ben’s friend, Matt Damon, also spent a lot of time with the brothers as they all attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School together. Looking back, he says that the Affleck household was always a fun place to be.

“That dinner table was one of the funnest places to be growing up because of all the debates that went on — on any subject," Damon told The Hollywood Reporter. "You had to craft an argument and a good one to survive. Ben really honed his debating skills there. He’s not a guy you want to get in a debate with."

Chris Anne worked as an elementary school teacher

When Ben was growing up, his mother worked as a teacher in a local school district. During her time teaching, she applied to Harvard University and went on to receive her master’s degree from the acclaimed school.

“My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school,” Ben explained to THR.

Timothy was an aspiring playwright who held a variety of jobs

While Chris Anne was involved in education, Ben told THR that his father, Timothy, had a “more working-class lifestyle.” Timothy didn’t attend college and held several jobs throughout his life, including working as a janitor at Harvard, where Chris Anne went to school.

“My father was an auto mechanic at Autotorium and a bartender and such. Now, he lives in California working at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center writing grant proposals and counseling people,” Ben said in a 1997 interview with CineZine.

In addition to holding odd jobs, Timothy was once an aspiring playwright, according to The New York Times. In high school, he briefly dropped out to travel to the home of writer William Faulkner.

“It’s a famous family story. My dad drove down to Oxford, Miss., got directions at a general store and knocked on Faulkner’s door. When a guy appeared, my dad said, ‘Hey, are you William Faulkner?’ The guy, badly hung over, asked, ‘Are you a writer?’ Dad shook his head no, and Faulkner said, ‘All right then, come on in,’ ” Ben recalled.

Although his writing career didn’t take off, he did go on to perform with the Theater Company of Boston alongside Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner.

Chris Anne and Timothy divorced when Ben was 12

When Ben was about to enter his teenage years, his parents separated, after which Timothy moved to California, and Chris Anne kept their home in Central Square — raising Ben and Casey on her own.

Speaking to PEOPLE in 2020, Ben recalled how "painful" the divorce felt at the time. A decade prior, Casey told Boston Magazine in 2006 that their mother did everything she could to maintain a sense of normalcy.

“She’s very conscientious. She made us stay inside when Skylab was falling. I couldn’t use the blender until I was 15. I’d go, ‘Mom, I’m not gonna cut my hand off with the f------ blender. I’m 15 years old,’ ” he said.

He continued, “She always made us go on family vacations. When you’re a kid, you just want to stay home and hang out with your friends. You don’t want to go to your grandparents’ house. But tradition meant a lot to her. She just insisted. We had a lot of fights about that. But now I love it and those are some of my favorite memories.”

Ben's father has been sober for over 30 years

When Chris Anne and Timothy divorced, his father’s life “sort of hit the skids,” Ben told THR. At the time, Timothy was an alcoholic, and two of Ben’s grandparents had dealt with alcohol addiction as well.

Reflecting on this period, Ben said it was a “scary and trying” time as Timothy struggled with alcoholism while in California. Fortunately, Timothy entered rehab and got sober when the actor was 19 years old. Fast forward, in 2020, he marked 30 years of sobriety.

“My father has thirty years of sobriety and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what that takes and what that means,” Ben told PEOPLE. “Part of being an adult is learning that your parents are just people. They’re not perfect. They were just doing their best. As a child, we expect perfection out of our parents.”

The Pearl Harbor star also shared that when he remembers his childhood now, he’s “learned to be able to look at things” that he wished had been different and now accepts them for what they were.

As for his dad's decision to get sober, Ben revealed that it left him with a lasting impression of what he was capable of too.

”The most enduring lesson my father taught me is the degree to which it's possible to change your life and patterns. It gives me hope that with the right amount of work and discipline, I can address and remedy some of the things I don't like very much about myself,” he told The New York Times.

Ben’s parents encouraged him to be involved in the arts

Ben was drawn to the arts from a young age, thanks to his parents’ participation in the theater community. He grew up often attending theater productions, and by the time he was in high school, he was an active member of the drama department — and had found a mentor in his teacher Gerry Speca.

“We both started out as children doing this largely because my father was in the theater and our mother took us to the theater all the time, and we just had a lot of people around us that were in the arts, and we both had this very influential teacher in high school,” Casey explained to Collider.

Ben landed some of his first roles thanks to his mom

Considering Ben grew up around the theater, his mother, Chris Anne, thought acting would be a good way to keep him occupied and out of trouble. She reached out to her Harvard roommate, casting director Patty Collins, and together, they encouraged Ben and Casey to audition for local productions as well as commercials and TV movies. One of Ben’s first roles was in a Burger King commercial.

“I got into acting as a young child on account of a sort of arbitrary thing. A friend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark," Ben told Parade. "I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followed through with it."

In his interview with Boston Magazine, Casey added, “I don’t know if we were really acting. We were usually extras. My mother was really supportive. But we didn’t really care that much about it other than it was a day off from school and 20 bucks.”

His parents warned him about the negative side of being an actor

Before Ben decided to pursue acting full-time, his parents wanted to make sure he understood the realities of working in the entertainment industry. They had him meet up with an unsuccessful actor so that he could hear about the ups and downs of Hollywood.

“When I was 17 my parents made me go out to dinner with a really bitter failed actor and listen to his experiences,” he told the Daily Mail in 2011. “It was a very difficult thing to go through. He had nothing but bad things to say about trying to be an actor."

Ben added, "I thought, ‘Well, I have to love it even if I don’t have success at all. It has to really be that important to me and I have to want to do it that much.' ”

Ben took Chris Anne as his date to the Oscars in 1998

When Ben was first nominated for an Oscar for his movie Good Will Hunting in 1998, he and Damon both took their moms as their dates. Recalling the career milestone, Ben shared that he couldn’t imagine bringing anyone else.

“We were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms. I remember how everyone had made such a big thing out of it as if this was such a novelty," Ben told Vanity Fair. "I remember thinking, being insecure, like, ‘Why? Why is it weird that we’re bringing our moms?’ Who else do you think we would bring?”

He continued, “There was nobody else that was going to go. That was it. Of course, our moms were gonna go. That was really innocent and not faked.”

Chris Anne attended Ben’s wedding to Jennifer Lopez

Through the years, Ben has had a close-knit relationship with Chris Anne. The mother-son duo have often been spotted spending time together in Los Angeles.

Chris Anne was in attendance at Ben’s 2022 wedding to Jennifer Lopez — although she had a health scare a day before the ceremony. She was treated at a local hospital after reportedly injuring her leg but thankfully made it back in time for the nuptials.

Ben’s father did not appear to be in attendance at the ceremony.

Ben keeps in touch with his dad periodically

Ben has not been as close with his father throughout his life, and the pair mostly communicate via email. He previously shared that his father isn't able to travel often due to a health issue, but he occasionally visits Los Angeles.

“My father has positional vertigo, and if he flies he gets really dizzy, so he has to drive out to California, which he does a couple times a year. We talk, but we email mostly,” Ben told THR in 2012.

A few years prior, the actor spoke to Rolling Stone in 2004 about his upbringing and discussed his parents, including how he stayed in touch with Timothy.

“I visited with him yesterday," Ben said. "My dad’s a good man. We have a good relationship.”

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