Ben Affleck is on a mission to step up his Spanish skills. The Way Back actor, who learned the language when he was young while living in Mexico for a TV series, admitted to Kelly Clarkson on her talk show, Wednesday, that he can’t handle the thought of his daughter Violet speaking better Spanish than him. “She’s always been a very good student, and she’s been interested in Spanish, and so I would often help her,” Ben said. “Now, all of a sudden, she’s gotten into the grade where she’s, like, in the harder Spanish classes and she’s getting better.”
© Getty ImagesThe dad of three noted that his firstborn is “right at the point” where she might pass him. “I was like, ‘Nope. This is not happening,’” Ben declared. “I don’t mind that I can’t do your math homework when you’re 14 years old, but you are not going to be better at Spanish than me.”
Violet has already begun correcting her father and his Spanish, but Ben has a plan. He explained, “So I’ve decided now I gotta take classes. I gotta do something to keep up because I can’t have my 14 year old…she was like ‘That sounds ridiculous. You're not using the imperfect tense.’”
Ben shares Violet, as well as daughter Seraphina, 11, and eight-year-old son Samuel, with his ex wife Jennifer Garner, whom he split from in 2015. The filmmaker recently showed off his Spanish during an appearance on El Gordo y la Flaca , where he spoke about his once-fiancée, Jennifer Lopez . “I like Jennifer Lopez a lot and it’s great to see her getting the respect that she deserves,” he said in Spanish last month. Ben also wished Jennifer and her future husband Alex Rodriguez “the best with their new marriage.”
