Some hot and heavy couples get ripped apart when September breaks their summer vacation. For Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, it’s a case where reality is ruining their pandemic love affair.
“The quarantine was unique in that they had downtime and really got to know each other to spend time at home,” a source who knows Affleck and the Armas told The Post. “But when the work started, things started to change.”
The Armas just signed on for the movie “The Gray Man”, alongside Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling, while Affleck will be the next star in George Clooney’s adaptation of the book “The Tender Bar”.
After months of amorous lockdown – PDA-filled dog outings and coffee in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles – it was reported this week that the two were calling it quits.
Representatives for Affleck and the Armas declined to comment.
There were first rumors of a breakup when they didn’t spend the holidays together and the Armas went home to Havana, Cuba.
For the Armas, LA is just a place to work. She has a house in Cuba, where her family still lives and, according to friends, considers it her home.
“She’s here for work reasons; like all actors, she lives wherever her work takes her, ”said a friend of the Armas.
“Ana decided she doesn’t want to live in LA and Ben wants to be close to his family,” said the source who knows both stars, of Affleck’s three young children with ex Jennifer Garner. His priority is to be rooted in LA. They are in different places [in their lives]. “
There was also the problem that – as Page Six reported – the Armas, 32, wants kids of their own, while, friends said, Affleck, 48, doesn’t want more kids in any way.
And merging with an established family isn’t always an easy task.
“Ana is wonderful and the kids loved her. I think it is difficult to be someone who enters into such a relationship, ”said the source who knows the couple.
“This is why Ben and Lindsay broke up – his kids will always be a priority,” the sources added to Affleck’s romance with “Saturday Night Live” producer Lindsay Shookus, who he dated in 2017-2018. again in 2019 after he went to rehab for alcohol abuse. (A representative for Shookus did not comment.)
The Oscar winner has spoken openly about his sobriety struggle.
In February 2020, he told The New York Times, “I started drinking every day. I got home from work and started drinking and just sat and drank until I passed out on the couch, ”admitted that a public setback on a Halloween party in 2019 embarrassed him and his kids.
But insiders also say that, despite his past matter-of-fact concerns, Affleck is a devoted, committed father.
They also say that Garner, who is described as a fiercely protective mother, approved of the Armas, as she seemed to balance Affleck.
Affleck and the Armas met on the set of the thriller “Deep Water”, which was filmed in 2019, but whose release date was moved to the summer of 2021. They were spotted during a romantic trip to Cuba in March 2020 before going to Costa Rica left and then LA just before the first lockdown started.
The pandemic helped them get closer quickly as a source close to them told The Post at the time, “Ben was going to come on set. [of ‘The Last Duel’] . . . and Ana would be on a world tour [for the James Bond film ‘No Time to Die’].
“It’s a real blessing to spend so much time together.”
The Armas was spotted in photos with what looked like an engagement ring, but was soon revealed as a prop for “Deep Water”.
The Armas moved into the actor’s home in Brentwood and brutally planted a cardboard cutout of himself on his lawn in June – reportedly as a way to troll paparazzi.
This week, a masked man who looked like Affleck’s actor brother, Casey Affleck, was seen throwing the cutout in a trash can. Casey denied it was him, but told “Entertainment Tonight” about the breakup:
“The reality is, I think this year has been very difficult for people in relationships. . . I think Ana is just the sweetest, funniest, smartest, most charming person. I think she has no problem meeting someone else. “
Casey, who’s divorced, added: “And I’ll be there to help Ben through it, but I don’t think he’ll have any problems. My advice to them would be like, ‘Yes, think about it for a long time [the decision to break up]because quarantine is no fun when you’re single. “
Although the Armas have moved and are reportedly looking for their own home away from Cuba in West Hollywood, the source who knows her and Affleck thinks all hope is not lost.
“They had a really solid relationship and are really upset because they got to a place where they need to break up,” the source said. “There is a lot of love there. They were very good to each other and I think that will lead to a friendship. “