Ben Affleck’s relationship advice received a fairly direct review from his 17-year-old child, who apparently sees no reason to let an extensive acting career interfere with a good family joke.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 54-year-old actor described how conversations about his children’s friends, romances and social drama sometimes unfold around the dinner table. Affleck shares Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14, with his former wife, Jennifer Garner.

Affleck said he believed his own experience might offer the children something useful. His teenager had another assessment of his qualifications.

A dinner-table lesson ends quickly

“My kids are talking at dinner and they, you know, they’ll talk about their friends and the drama and the relationships. And I have some lived experience,” Affleck told host Jimmy Kimmel.

“So, I think that’s worth sharing some lessons that I, you know, these are the kind of things we give to our children.”

He began offering his view on one particular relationship, saying: “Well, the thing about that relationship there, with that person is...”

Before the lecture could gather momentum, the 17-year-old turned to him and asked: “Oh, like you’re the expert on relationships?”

Affleck laughed while Kimmel and the studio audience joined in. Being challenged by a teenager is hardly unusual. Having your marital record available as supporting evidence does make the exchange more efficient.

The bookstore provided more material

The actor said the same child delivered another carefully timed remark during a visit to a bookstore.

“We’re just browsing around,” Affleck recalled. “And there’s some book by a French guy and it’s called I’m Sorry for Everything, and my kid just turns to me, deadpan, and goes, ‘Oh look, Dad, it’s your autobiography.’”

Rather than taking offence, Affleck said he felt proud of the joke. It was concise, relevant and required no follow-up questions. Parents often hope their children develop confidence and wit. Occasionally, they discover those qualities are aimed directly at them.

The comments drew on a dating history that has remained highly public. Affleck and Garner were married for 13 years before their divorce was finalised in 2018. They continue to share their three children.

Affleck later reunited with Jennifer Lopez, 57, nearly two decades after the pair had first become engaged. They married, but the relationship ended after roughly two years. His other former partners include producer Lindsay Shookus and actors Ana de Armas and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Affleck has lost his “cool dad” status

Later in the interview, Affleck admitted that his standing at home has declined for another reason: his children have heard some of his stories before.

“What I found is that now it’s not only like one teenager rolling their eyes,” he said. “I’ll kind of launch into something at the dinner table and now I catch them giving each other looks.”

He added that he had realised he was becoming “the caricature in this story,” with the children silently recognising another familiar speech from their father.

“I couldn’t imagine like I wouldn’t be the cool dad,” Affleck said. “And yet, it turns out...”

The sentence did not need finishing. His children appear to have handled that part already.