Violet Affleck’s Dispute with Jennifer Garner Over Yale Essay

Violet Affleck has never shied away from standing up for what she believes in, and it seems her famous parents have no plans to get in the way of their activist daughter.

The 19-year-old college student, who just completed her freshman year at Yale University, recently raised eyebrows with an academic essay titled, ‘A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles.’

In the very first line, Violet shares that she ‘spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with [her] mother’ Jennifer Garner, 53, over the issue of climate change.

‘She [Garner] was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself [sic] and my siblings,’ the Ivy League student wrote, and self-proclaimed ‘climate-literate member of Generation Z,’ wrote in her paper published on Sunday in the school’s Global Health Review.

‘I was surprised at her surprise,’ Violet wrote, adding that ‘my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when.’

To outsiders, it might seem that Violet’s activism would potentially cause trouble for her A-list parents, but an inside source exclusively tells the Daily Mail that Garner and Ben Affleck, 52, are nothing but supportive of their daughter’s beliefs and activism. 

Violet, 19, the daughter of Ben Affleck, 52, and Jennifer Garner, 53, recalled having a tense argument with her mom in a candid essay for Yale (Garner and Violet pictured May 18 in Los Angeles)

Writing of her surprise at Garner’s reaction to the wildfires, Violet, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the ’13 Going on 30′ star, wrote: ‘As a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when’

‘Violet is so uniquely herself,’ the source said. 

‘She is finding her voice and her parents know this and challenge her all the time,’ they continued. ‘They are very proud of her for sharing her beliefs so they don’t get angry. 

‘They champion her opinion and respect that she is her own woman. They don’t always have to agree with her, but they give her all the room in the world to express herself.’

In addition to naming her mom in her essay, Violet also recalled how her younger brother, 13-year-old Samuel, was seemingly skeptical of her associating the wildfires to climate change, asking, ‘What did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?’

‘Hopefully,’ she wrote, ‘most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother.’

According to the insider, there ‘wasn’t much of any discussion that her brother and Jen would be mentioned in the essay,’ but it’s ‘not the end of the world’ and ‘nobody is upset’ with Violet for detailing their intimate family disagreement.

‘[Her parents] want her to live her life and use her voice for good. They’ll always be her parents, and they will say and argue with her when they feel that is right, but it just reiterates that she can do the same thing,’ the source added.

‘They all have a very healthy family dialogue and more of this will likely happen in the future.’

In July 2024, Violet made an impassioned plea in front of the LA County Board of Supervisors calling for an end to all ‘mask bans’ in medical facilities and government buildings.

During the speech, which marked one of teen’s first public displays of activism, she detailed her experience of contracting ‘a post-viral condition’ in 2019. 

‘They champion her opinion and respect that she is her own woman,’ the insider said of Ben and Garner. ‘They don’t always have to agree with her, but they give her all the room in the world to express herself’

Garner and Affleck also share Fin (formerly Seraphina), 16, and son Samuel, 13 (Garner pictured with her three kids in 2018)

Violet (pictured left with Garner in 2024) has been spotted on multiple occasions wearing a face mask 

She also urged the board ‘to confront the long COVID crisis’ by strengthening protections, offering high-quality tests and opposing a ban on masks.

‘I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC light in government facilitates, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical faculties,’ she said.

Following the devastating Los Angeles fires, Violet displayed her dedication towards her personal health and safety when she was photographed wearing an N-95 mask outside her dad’s rental property in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles last January.

At the time, it was reported that Violet was hoping the wildfires would encourage others to understand the importance of preventing a ban on face masks. 

Violet was said to have been ‘pressuring’ her parents and siblings to protect themselves with face coverings amid the hazardous air quality caused by the terrifying blazes.

She was also seen wearing a mask at Michael Rubin’s White Party in 2023, and again in May 2024 when she was pictured carrying Steven Thrasher’s award-winning 2022 book, The Viral Underclass.

However, Violet’s prolific mask-wearing has become a hot topic of conversation online, with divisive comments hailing her as both ‘courageous’ and ‘utterly deluded’.

As a result of the online fervor, a source previously revealed to the Daily Mail that Affleck was forced to step in by warning his eldest daughter that she needs to be ‘realistic’ about her campaigning, after she was left ‘extremely disheartened’ by the response to her speech on mask mandates.

‘While Ben and Jen will always support their daughter, Ben had a conversation with her and told her that she needs to be realistic with this because he doesn’t want her to waste all of her time putting effort into something that probably won’t make a difference in the long run,’ the insider said in July 2024.

‘He was also concerned that Violet felt as if her parent’s star power was going to be able to guarantee her the outcome that she wanted, which in this case, it is not.’ 

While her mom — who volunteered to help her devastated community amid the fires — was ‘shell-shocked’ and ‘astonished’ by the inferno, Violet said she was ‘surprised at her surprise’

Affleck has told his daughter Violet that she needs to be ‘realistic’ about her campaigning after she was left ‘extremely disheartened’ by the response to her speech on mask mandates

Although Ben and Garner have yet to publicly address their daughter’s recent comments in her Yale essay, the ’13 Going on 30′ star previously gushed over Violet while appearing on ‘Live with Kelly and Mark‘ in November 2023.

During her appearance, she described Violet as ‘a self-starter’ who has been ‘totally in charge’ of mapping out her collegiate curriculum.

‘I’m proud of her no matter what,’ Garner said.

The A-list parents, who wed in 2005, have remained on good terms since their 2018 divorce. Earlier this year, they sparked reconciliation rumors after Ben was seen pulling her in for an embrace during their son Samuel’s paintball birthday event.

He also visited his ex-wife, who is currently dating businessman John Miller, at her home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles for Mother’s Day, and appeared to be carrying a small gift.

He previously praised Garner and their co-parenting partnership during an interview with GQ magazine in March.

‘I’m really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner, the kids’ mom, who’s wonderful and great and we work together well,’ he said.