Ben Affleck says his divorce from Jennifer Garner is the biggest regret of his life.

The 47-year-old actor and filmmaker opened up about his battle with alcohol addiction, the divorce and his career in a candid interview with The New York Times published Tuesday.

Affleck, an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of Oscars Best Picture winner Argo, explained that his alcoholism and his crumbling marriage fuelled one another in a vicious cycle in 2015 and 2016. He and Garner announced they were separating in 2015 and divorced in 2018.

The pair had first started dating in 2004 and married the following year. They share three children: Violet, 14; Seraphina, 11; and Samuel, 7.

Affleck told the Times that he was still struggling with guilt about the split, but had worked past the feelings of shame.

The biggest regret of my life is this divorce, he said. Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. Its just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.