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Jennifer Garner: Why Her Kids Hate The Paparazzi, Most Especially Her 4-Year-Old Son Samuel

By Merry Strong
Published on: 12:49 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Jennifer Garner just admitted her son, Samuel, hates the paparazzi more than her other kids. When you think about it, can you really blame the 4-year-old? It’s bad enough when your parents split up. But when mom and dad happen to be Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, it makes the situation a whole lot worse.

Her other two children, 10-year-old Violet and 7-year-old Seraphina, aren’t thrilled with the intrusion either. Although the girls aren’t usually as vocal about it.

Many people are unaware it was Jennifer Garner, along with Halle Berry, who were (almost totally) responsible for California’s “anti-paparazzi” law, which passed in late 2013, according to E! Online.

The pair spoke to a California State Assembly committee earlier that same year. Both women talked about their unfavorable encounters with unscrupulous celebrity photographers and the fact that they didn’t want their children subjected to “alarming and terrorizing” paparazzi behavior.

Samuel was 17 months old and already terrified of the commotion, when his mom spoke before the committee.

Jennifer Garner, a recent guest on The Dr. Oz Show, took the time to explain how Samuel reacts to stalking photographers. He tells his mom he doesn’t like cameras, men with cameras, and being laughed at, by them or her. This is Garner’s concerned response.

“I can control not laughing at you. (Although he is so funny) But we have to talk about the fact they can’t hurt you. They can’t touch you. They’re far away. We can’t make them go away. We just have to live our lives, son, and do the best we can. And you know what? That is just something he’s gonna have to grow up with, because if we move to Timbuktu, some fool in Timbuktu’s gonna buy a camera and follow us around, if they can make a living off of it.”

Garner went on to tell Dr. Oz that after the law passed, annoying paparazzi confrontations slowed down a bit. The six to 20 cars parked outside their home, on a daily basis, suddenly thinned out a bit. Even better, fewer photos of her kids materialized on the Internet.

Superhero mom Jennifer Garner has been known to confront trolling paparazzi on occasion. There are pictures floating around on the internet of a pony-tailed Mrs. Garner giving an obnoxious “photo snapper” a piece of her mind.

Ben Affleck, in a March 21 interview with People, had this to say about Jennifer Garner and the issue of co-parenting.

“Jen is a superhero mom. She is an amazing mother and I’m really lucky to have her as a partner to co-parent these kids with, We try our best, we put them first and that’s what we do.”

Do you think there should be stricter nationwide laws in regard to the paparazzi, especially when there are children in the immediate vicinity? It’s a shame that children, as young as Samuel, have such negative views of something as innocent as a camera.

Hats off to Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry, who took the initiative to go after the paparazzi and make the world a safer place for everyone’s children, including their own.

[Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]

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