While Ben Affleck’s stay at Raya may have been short-lived, his time on the dating app has caused a lot of waves over the years.
The actor’s online activity first hit the headlines in 2019 when he appeared to confirm a report about using a celebrity dating app to find love.
“HA, you got me. I’m dating,” he wrote in a statement at the time, before using the attention to his personal life to shed light on his work with The Midnight Mission. “But let’s be serious for a moment and talk about something really important. I have been recovering for more than a year, and I partially help others. Midnight Mission is an incredible organization that helps those in need with housing, training, development and recovery.”
Affleck’s rare comment about his personal life came after his breakup with Lindsay Shookus, with whom he dated every now and then for two years. He was also briefly linked to Playboy model Shauna Sexton in 2018 after divorcing Jennifer Garner.
The Oscar winner and the Spy graduate were married from 2005 to 2015, and the divorce ended in 2018. The former spouses have three children: Violet, Serafina and Samuel.
“The biggest regret in my life is divorce. Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just a toxic and disgusting feeling of low self—esteem,” he told The New York Times in 2020. “It’s not particularly helpful for me to be obsessed with failures, relapses and hurting myself. I certainly made mistakes. I’ve definitely done things I regret. But you need to pull yourself together, learn from it, learn a little more, try to keep going forward.”
Subsequently, Affleck dated his partner in the film “Deep Water” Ana de Armas for almost a year. Although the couple broke up with the headlines in January 2021, the Argo director soon left the market again, reuniting with ex-fiancee Jennifer Lopez. The couple officially returned in the spring of 2021, almost two decades after the termination of their first engagement. In April 2022, Affleck proposed to Lopez again.
However, shortly after the reunion of Bennifer, information appeared in the news again that the Tender Bar star uses Paradise after Emma Hernan from Selling Sunset stated in the fifth season that she coincides with the director.
“He may or may not have written to me,” the real estate agent said during the April 2022 episode, which was apparently filmed in the fall of 2021. “He may or may not have asked for… coffee several times.”
Affleck’s rep released a statement after the season closed on Netflix: “Raya has confirmed that he has not been an active participant for several years.”
However, Hernan is not the only one who claimed to be on par with Affleck regarding Paradise. Scroll down to find out more about Affleck’s time spent on the dating app:
Patti Stanger’s Claims
During an appearance on the US “Hot Hollywood” podcast in February 2020, the former “Millionaire Matchmaker” star stated that she “saw [Affleck] a million fucking times on Paradise.”
Exiting the application
“I’m not on any websites, dating apps, Tinder, Grindr, Brindr, Bumble, Humble,” Affleck said on “Good Morning America” in February 2020. “I’m not on any of them. I don’t have any judgment about the people who are there — I know people who are on them and having fun, but it’s not me. I would like to have a relationship that has deep meaning and to which I could be deeply committed.”
Nivin Jay Video
The comedian went viral in May 2021 when she posted a video on TikTok that said, “Remembering the time I met Ben Affleck on Paradise and thought it was fake, so I sorted him out and he sent me a video on Instagram.”
The clip subsequently moved on to Affleck’s alleged video message.
“Nivin, why didn’t you match me?” he said. “It’s me!”
Denying Emma Hernan’s Story
Hernan stated in an April 2022 episode of Selling Sunset that she matched up with Affleck before he got back together with Lopez. The Netflix star told Chrischel Stause that she and Affleck “have a connection to Boston,” calling his messages “nice” and noting that he is “very nice.”
His representative then released a statement denying that he had been on the app in recent years.
