Ben Affleck shared a striking story from his childhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, revealing he was robbed at knifepoint as a teenager by an attacker who would go on to commit a far more serious crime years later.
Speaking on Kerry Washington’s Street You Grew Up Onpodcast on September 30, Affleck recalled growing up on Cottage Street in what he described as a “working class” neighbourhood, where “poor people sort of like, feeling like they were fighting it out” was a common dynamic.
Affleck described watching two kids approach him and initially considering running, but instead trying to appear unbothered.
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“They pass me, grab me, take a knife out, [and say] ‘Give me your money,'” he recalled.
“I was scared,” he admitted, “but then out of the corner of my eye, I realized who they were.”
Reflecting on what happened to his attacker afterward, Affleck said, “And actually, that kid who robbed me ended up, I don’t know three or four years later, killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years. So there was that, you know what I mean? And you were kind of aware of it.”
Affleck, who shares three teenage children, Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, has spoken in other recent interviews about the experience of parenting teens, including how his own kids have playfully teased him about his dating history.
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2026-10-01 07:28:00
