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"Ben Affleck has admitted that he considers the year he was involved with Jennifer Lopez the worst year of his life. Speaking to Details magazine, the actor revealed that he hates people bringing up what happened in his professional and personal life in 2003.  &amp;quot;In our culture, we get very much into short-handing people,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;And I got shorthanded as That Guy: Jennifer Lopez, movies bombed, therefore he must be a sort of thoughtless dilettante, solipsistic consumer blah blah blah. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s hard to shake those sort of narratives. You were looking at that one-liner on me in 2003, which was definitely the annus horribilis of my life.&amp;quot; Affleck and Lopez began dating in 2002 before they filmed the critically panned romantic comedy Gigli. The couple got engaged in November of the same year and Affleck appeared in the music video for Lopez&amp;#039;s single &amp;#039;Jenny From The Block&amp;#039;. Their highly publicised relationship eventually ended in 2004, and Affleck began seeing his Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner, with whom he now has three children.   &amp;quot;I made a bunch of movies that didn&amp;#039;t work. I was ending up in the tabloids. I don&amp;#039;t know what the lesson is, except that you just have to find your compass,&amp;quot; Affleck added. &amp;quot;People bring up 2003, and I get it. Jennifer Lopez ... Gigli, and all this s**t just kind of blew up. But, you know, in 2003, Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois! OK?&amp;quot; Affleck married Garner in 2005 and has since established a successful career as a writer and director as well as an actor. After winning praise for his films Gone Baby Gone and The Town, he was awarded the Chairman&amp;#039;s Award at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival.  Affleck has admitted that although he now considers himself a family man, he doesn&amp;#039;t want to be a &amp;quot;stay-at-home dad&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Work is very important to me,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I like to work. So does my wife. But I need my work to mean something to me in order for me to not be home with [my children]. &amp;quot;Anytime you think, &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m wasting my time here&amp;#039;, the first thought you have is, &amp;#039;I could go home and be with my kids&amp;#039;.&amp;quot; Affleck stars in Argo, a political drama set in 1970s Tehran that he also directed. The film is released in cinemas worldwide today (September 14). Watch the trailer for Argo below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a406109/ben-affleck-my-year-with-jennifer-lopez-was-my-annus-horribilis/>