Ben Affleck is not hiding from his personal battles.
During a Today interview on Monday, the Triple Frontier star opened up about his personal life, exactly four months since he confirmed publicly that he had undergone more treatment for alcohol addiction.
"It doesn't really bother me to talk about alcoholism and being an alcoholic. It's part of my life," he told Hoda Kotb when she brought up the candid statement he issued at the time. "It's something that I deal with. It doesn't have to sort of subsume my whole identity and be everything, but it is something that you know you have to work at."
While Affleck, who previously spent time in rehab in early 2017, is a household name, he has faced recurring struggles just like everyone else.
"I feel like I had a problem and I really want to address it, and I take some pride in that…it's about yourself, your life, your family, and you know people—we encounter these kinds of hurdles and we have to deal with them."
As he's made clear in past statements, Affleck overcame his battles thanks to—and because of—his family. The star is dad to two daughters and a son with ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. While the two finalized their 2015 divorce last November, they remain devoted co-parents.
"I hope I'm a pretty good dad. I certainly try very hard," he told Kotb of his parenting. "I'm lucky they've got a great mom, and she helps out a great deal with making sure that we co-parent in as good a way as possible…dads are so important to kids and it's our responsibility to be there for them, to be present, to be mindful, to be attentive, to be part of their lives, to be as in it as moms."
He continued, "That's really the central preoccupation in my life, you know, the focus of my life is what I love doing. It's what makes me happy and the rest of the stuff kind of follows."
As for his former wife of 10 years, Kotb pointed out the love in his words about the actress.
"Of course, she's wonderful," Affleck said of Garner. "Somebody's the mother of your kids, they're going to be the most important, central person in your life, and that's good."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)