Ana de Armas has described how she had to flee Los Angeles after splitting up with Ben Affleck in early 2021 due to relentless paparazzi and media attention.
Speaking to ELLE US, the Deep Water star opened up about the weeks and months following the breakup, revealing that she felt there was “no way out” while she remained in LA.
“Going through it [myself] confirmed my thoughts about, ‘This is not the place for me to be.'”
“It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out.”
Affleck and de Armas were first linked in March 2020 after filming mystery drama film, Deep Water together. By May, there were publicly official—de Armas shared photos of a hiking trip with Affleck to her social media. In August, the actress met Affleck’s children to Jennifer Garner, and later that month, she was seen moving into his LA house.
But in early 2021, PEOPLE reported the pair had broken up—and over the phone, no less. By mid 2021, rumours about Affleck rekindling his romance with former fiancee Jennifer Lopez ran rife. It wasn’t long before all was confirmed.
Meanwhile, de Armas fled the public eye and has now happily settled in New York City where she resides with her new boyfriend, Tinder exec Paul Boukadakis.
And while her career to date has been nothing short of impressive, de Armas is only just getting started. She has a whirlwind year ahead after scoring the coveted role of Marilyn Monroe in Netflix’s upcoming biopic, Blonde.
She’s also just finished filming The Gray Man, an action movie co-starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. It’s reportedly the biggest-budget film Netflix has ever made.
They say that break-ups are inevitably a gift, whether you see it at the time or not—de Armas (and her thriving success after letting go of what was no longer serving her) is picture proof.
