Ben Affleck threw his head back while indulging in a cigarette outside the Sunset Tower Hotel in Hollywood, in a moment certain to become yet another meme.
His nicotine habit has been an Internet sensation ever since he was glimpsed looking miserable and exhausted while smoking on August 22, 2016.
The 53-year-old appeared as though he might be puffing his cares away once again when he emerged from the Sunset Boulevard hot spot Monday night.
Wearing a three-piece suit with no tie and his top buttons undone, the Argo heartthrob was the image of shambolic end-of-the-night glamour.
He occasionally held the cigarette in his mouth without using his hands, leaning back and looking up as he took a relaxing drag.
Although he once quit smoking in 2005 with the help of a hypnotist recommended by his longtime pal and collaborator Matt Damon, he has long resumed the habit.
Ben Affleck threw his head back while indulging in a cigarette outside the Sunset Tower Hotel in Hollywood, in a moment certain to become yet another meme
Ben smoked for 20 years, at one point enjoying a pack of cigarettes a day and describing the vice as ‘part of who I was,’ before he initially quit in 2005.
The decision was prompted by the fact his wife at the time, Jennifer Garner, was pregnant with their first child Violet Affleck.
Three years later, he revealed that he had given up smoking by attending hypnotherapy sessions at Matt’s urging.
‘You sit in, like, a Barker lounger and he sips water and just talks to you for an hour, and explains how nicotine is poison,’ Ben told Oprah Winfrey. ‘All of a sudden, you thought: “This is asinine that I’ve been doing this to myself for all these years.”‘
After quitting, he raved: ‘I feel a huge difference in my health now that I don’t smoke. I feel like I’m in better shape than I was five years ago.’
However Ben, who has also been candid about his past struggles with alcoholism, has been indulging in cigarettes again for the past several years.Â
Last August, the day after Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from him on what would have been their second wedding anniversary, he was seen chain-smoking in his car.
At the start of this year a source alleged that Ben was attempting to give up smoking again and was toying with the idea of retrying hypnotherapy.
The 53-year-old appeared as though he might be puffing his cares away once again when he emerged from the Sunset Boulevard hot spot Monday nightÂ
Wearing a three-piece suit with no tie and his top buttons undone, the Argo heartthrob was the image of shambolic end-of-the-night glamour
‘Ben was so happy 20 years ago when he quit. He swore he’d never go back, but here he is just as addicted as ever and desperate to stop,’ said the insider.
‘He hates the way it smells and knows it’s terrible for his health, not to mention a terrible example for his kids,’ the source added to Radar Online.
‘He’s really got only one vice left, the smokes, so no one wants to push him too hard to give that up since he’s done so well staying sober,’ the insider observed.Â
‘But it’s obviously not a good habit. Any time he feels stressed, he reaches for a cigarette, and he’s stressed a lot.’
