During the several months of the pandemic, while many of us were stuck at home, there was one thing that celebrity news fans could count on: photos of Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. The pair, who were together for about a year, were photographed regularly, walking their dog, grocery shopping, and hanging out with Affleck’s children from his relationship with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.
De Armas and Affleck split up in early 2021 and have both moved onto other relationships. And while neither has spoken much publicly about their romance, the Knives Out star touched on it in an interview with Elle, including what was “horrible” about dating Affleck. Read on to find out what major life change her time with the older actor inspired her to make.
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In March 2020, Us Weekly reported that de Armas and Affleck were dating after meeting on the set of their movie, Deep Water, which was finally released earlier this year. During 2020, they were photographed together frequently when on walks and running errands. In December 2020, a source told People that the couple had moved in together, but in January, the news broke that they split up.
According to a source who spoke with People, de Armas broke up with Affleck because she “doesn’t want to be Los Angeles based and Ben obviously has to since his kids live in Los Angeles.” Another source said, “This is something that was mutual and something that is completely amicable. They are in different points in their lives; there is deep love and respect there.”
Elle asked de Armas for a new profile what it was like to be photographed so often and to have so much attention on her personal life. “Horrible,” the star responded. But, she also explained that living it led her to change her surroundings.
“Yeah, which is good,” de Armas added of the scrutiny. “That’s one of the reasons why I left L.A.”
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Now, de Armas lives in New York City, which she prefers. She explained to Elle that the impression she already had of Los Angeles was proven true by her experience with Affleck.
“Going through it [myself] confirmed my thoughts about, ‘This is not the place for me to be,'” she said. “It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out … It’s always the feeling of something that you don’t have, something missing. It’s a city that keeps you anxious.”
The magazine also notes that de Armas likes that New York is only a three-hour flight to her family in Havana, Cuba, and that it’s also much closer to Spain, where she lived for eight years, than California.
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De Armas didn’t just move on to a new city, she moved on to a new relationship, too. According to Elle, the No Time to Die actor is dating Paul Boukadakis, an executive for the dating app Tinder. As for Affleck, he very famously back together with ex-fiancée Jennifer Lopez in the spring of 2021 and they became re-engaged in April 2022.