Jennifer Garner Says Son Samuel Hates the Paparazzi More Than Her Other Kids Do

The actress made her comments on the Dr. Oz show

Jennifer Garner says the youngest of her and Ben Affleck's three kids, son Samuel, 4, hates the paparazzi the most.

In 2013, the 43-year-old actress, who stars in the new film Miracles From Heaven, and fellow mom Halle Berry spoke before a California State Assembly committee about their past dealings with celebrity photographers in a bid to push legislation that would impose stricter penalties on paparazzi who act in a way that "seriously alarms, annoys, torments, or terrorizes" a "child or ward" while recording or attempting to record them without the "express consent of the parent or legal guardian." The "anti-paparazzi" bill was signed into law later that year.

Garner had told the committee Samuel, then 17 months old, was terrified of the shutterbugs and cries.

"Of all my kids, he hates them the most," the actress said on The Dr. Oz show Wednesday. "He hates them."

Garner said six paparazzi cars used to be parked outside her home every day and between 15 to 20 on weekends and that the legislation "has made things better." While celebrity photographers still regularly follow and photograph her, Affleck, 43, Samuel and their daughters Violet, 10, and Seraphina, 7, in public, fewer paparazzi photos of the kids have been released and published online since the law was passed.

The actress, who has confronted photographers herself before, said the paparazzi photograph her family every day and that every time her son sees them, he says, "I don't like that. There are two things I don't like, Mom. I don't like cameras, I don't like men with cameras and I don't like being laughed at. I don't like if I feel like you're laughing at me."

"And I say, 'I can control not laughing at you'—although he is so funny—'But we have to talk about the fact they can't hurt you. They can't touch you. They're far away. We can't make them go away. We just have to live our lives, son, and do the best we can,'" she said. "And you know what? That is just something he's gonna have to grow up with, because if we move to Timbuktu, some fool in Timbuktu's gonna buy a camera and follow us around, if they can make a living off of it."