Violet Affleck revealed she spent much of January “arguing” with mother, Jennifer Garner.
In an essay penned by Violet, 19, and published on Sunday, May 18, by Yale University’s student-run Yale Global Health Review, the teenager detailed why she and Garner, 53, clashed as devastating wildfires affected the family’s community that month.
“I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,” Violet, whose essay was titled A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles, began. “She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings.”
Violet, whose father is Garner’s ex-husband Ben Affleck, explained that she was shocked by her mother’s response to the fires, which lasted for 24 days and resulted in more than 29 fatalities.
“I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when,” Violet wrote before adding that her younger sibling, Samuel Affleck, was also involved in the discussion.
Detailing how she had encountered several people who believed the wildfires were “a burst of bad luck,” Violet wrote, “What, my little brother asked, did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?”
The passionate change maker, who is a first-year student at Davenport College and spoke out about Los Angeles face mask bans during a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting in July, further noted, “Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother.”
Garner shared rare public insight into her relationship with Violet when her daughter became a high-school graduate last year. Taking to Instagram to share a carousel of photos and videos, the actress was seen crying in various locations including Violet’s graduation ceremony and an airplane. “Tell me you have a graduate without telling me you have a graduate,” Garner captioned the celebratory post.
In addition to Violet and Samuel, 13, Garner also shares Fin, 16, with Affleck, 52.
During her July speech, Violet also candidly detailed her own health struggles, revealing that she contracted “a post-viral condition in 2019.” Violet confirmed, as seen in an X clip of the speech that was shared at the time, “I’m OK now, but I saw firsthand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown that into sharper relief.”
Her brave declaration came less than three months after her high-school graduation.
