Some hot, heavy couples are separated when September interrupts their summer adventure. For Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, it is a reality ruining their pandemic love affair.
“The quarantine was unique because they had downtime and really met while spending time at home,” a source who knows Affleck and de Armas told The Post. “But as soon as work started again, things started to change.”
De Armas has just signed the contract for the film “The Gray Man”, alongside Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling, while Affleck will star next in George Clooney’s adaptation of the book “The Tender Bar”.
After months of lovemaking – with dog walks full of PDAs and coffee runs in the Brentwood neighborhood in Los Angeles – it was reported this week that the two had given up.
Affleck and Armas representatives declined to comment.
Rumors arose about a breakup when they didn’t vacation together and de Armas went to his home in Havana, Cuba.
For de Armas, LA is just a workplace. She owns a house in Cuba, where her family still lives and considers her home, according to friends.
“She is here for work reasons; like all actors, she lives wherever work takes her, ”said a friend of Armas.
“Ana has decided that she doesn’t want to live in LA and Ben wants to be close to his family,” said the source who knows the two stars about Affleck’s three children with ex Jennifer Garner. “His priority is to have roots 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 her own children, while, say friends, there is no way Affleck, 48, to want more 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 is entering a relationship like this ”, said the source who knows the couple.
“That’s why Ben and Lindsay broke up – their kids will always be a priority,” added sources on Affleck’s romance with “Saturday Night Live” producer Lindsay Shookus, whom he dated in 2017-2018 and again in 2019. after he went to rehab for alcohol abuse. (A Shookus representative did not comment.)
The Oscar winner spoke openly about his battle for sobriety.
In February 2020, he told The New York Times: “I started drinking every day. I would come home from work and start drinking and sit there and drink until I passed out on the couch ”, admitting that a public relapse at a Halloween party in 2019 was embarrassing for him and his children.
But sources also say that despite his previous substance problems, Affleck is a dedicated and involved father.
They also say that Garner, who is described as a fiercely protective mother, approved of Armas, as she seemed to keep Affleck in balance.
Affleck and de Armas met on the set of the thriller “Deep Water”, which was filmed in 2019, but had its release date postponed to the summer of 2021. They were seen on a romantic getaway to Cuba in March 2020 before leaving to Costa Rica and then LA just before the first blockade begins.
The pandemic helped them get closer quickly, as a source close to them told The Post at the time: “Ben was due on set [of ‘The Last Duel’] . . . and Ana should 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 pictures wearing what looked like an engagement ring, but was quickly revealed as an accessory for “Deep Water”.
De Armas moved into the actor’s home in Brentwood and, in June, brazenly planted a cardboard cutout of herself on her lawn – supposedly as a form of paparazzi troll.
This week, a masked man who looked like Affleck’s actor brother, Casey Affleck, was seen throwing the cutout into 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 the sweetest, funniest, smartest and most charming person. I don’t think she’ll have any trouble getting to know someone else. “
Casey, who is divorced, added: “And I will be there to take care of Ben, but I don’t think he will have any problems. My advice to them would be: ‘Yes, think a lot about [the decision to break up], because quarantine is not fun if you’re single. ‘”
Although de Armas has moved and is looking for a home away from Cuba for her in West Hollywood, the source knows her and Affleck thinks that all hopes may not be lost.
“They had a really solid relationship and are really upset that they have reached a point where they need to part ways,” said the source. “There is a lot of love there. They were very good to each other and I think that will lead to a friendship. “