Ben Affleck admitted he used to have compassion for Britney Spears when paparazzi harassed her throughout a troublesome time.
“A long time ago, years and years ago, I really had a lot of empathy for Britney Spears,” the “Argo” star just lately mentioned on the “This Past Weekend With Theo Von” podcast.
“Because I remember it seemed like … these people are following her around in a time where she may or may not have been having difficulty.”
Affleck, 52, clarified he was solely speculating that Spears, 43, could have been struggling when paparazzi had been following her round in the course of the unspecified time frame.
“I don’t know because I don’t know her,” he mentioned. “But I do know that the cycle of having people harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you. It seemed like that itself was kind of whipping up the whole thing into a tizzy.”
“That’s the first time I thought this is kind of a weird, unintentional — I think culturally — but kind of collective cruelty where what’s taken out of the image that you see are the people around waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it,” the actor added.
Affleck defined that the pictures taken of celebrities showing aggravated are the results of them being agitated by photographers “poking” at them.
“All you see is the growling animal,” he mentioned.
While the “Gone Girl” star didn’t specify precisely when he felt unhealthy for Spears, he could have been referring to the time around the pop star’s 2007 breakdown when she shaved her head.
In 2008, the “Toxic” songstress was subjected to psychological well being evaluations and psychiatric holds after she allegedly locked herself within the rest room together with her and her ex-husband Kevin Federline’s two children amid a custody dispute.
Spears was then put right into a conservatorship in October of that yr, which officially ended in 2021.
Affleck, in the meantime, insisted that he didn’t know Spears after she claimed to have made out with him “years ago.”
“Cool pic of me and Ben Affleck and Diane Warren years ago 😂😂 !!!” the “Circus” singer wrote on Instagram in February 2024 alongside a photograph from 1999.
“He’s such an amazing actor. Did I fail to mention I made out with Ben that night … I honestly forgot … damn that’s crazy!!!”
Affleck later dodged a question in regards to the alleged makeout session when pressed by a paparazzi.
