Ben Affleck can count on friend Matt Damon to be by his side for his toughest times. Affleck, 53, and Damon, 55, sat down for an interview with Howard Stern for his SiriusXM radio show on Monday, January 12. During their chat, Stern, 72, asked about "when Ben was going through all his problems," including Affleck's divorces from exes Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez and in addition to his struggles with alcohol. "Could you go to Ben and say, 'I'm here to help you?'" the radio host asked Damon, who wholeheartedly replied, "Oh, yeah, our relationship isn't affected by what people are saying." Damon continued. "I was there for all of it." Ben Affleck Goes Out With Matt Damon and Wife Luciana Amid J. Lo Divorce Affleck shared his appreciation for what a good friend Damon has been to him after all these years. "That means a lot to me," he told Damon of his support. "That's sort of what a real friend is." Affleck and Damon were childhood friends before their 1997 film Good Will Hunting launched both of them into superstardom. "Your evolution gets kind of stunted at the moment you become famous because the world treats you differently," Damon said of his and Affleck's bond. "I think we were lucky in that we were 25 and 27, so we had a handful of years under our belt where we would walk into a room and not turn any heads." Affleck echoed similar sentiments, stating that he and Damon "got into a good place pretty early on." "That's kind of why we're as sane as we are - to what degree, you may be the judge!" he recalled. "But getting famous and successful kind of together, [we had] somebody to turn to and go 'is this f***ing nuts, or what?' Or to say 'what are you doing, man?'" Affleck was married to Garner, 53, from 2005 to 2018. The pair fell in love after meeting on the set of Daredevil in 2003 and tied the knot two years later. They went on to welcome three children: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13. In 2015, Garner and Affleck announced their split before finalizing their divorce three years later. "You have to be smart about what you can and can't handle, and I could not handle what was out there," she said of her and Affleck's divorce in an interview with Marie Claire UK published on Wednesday, January 7. "But what was out there was not what was hard. The fact of it is what was hard. The actual breaking up of a family is what was hard. Losing a true partnership and friendship is what was hard." Jennifer Lopez Holds Matt Damon's Hand Amid Ben Affleck Divorce Garner added that she and Affleck were able to come together and form a strong coparenting bond. "I'm able to coparent at this point in time with peace and equanimity and a partnership that I didn't know I would ever get back to," she explained. "I think it's important for women to know, when they think, 'Oh, I'll never see that, I'll never have that feeling, I'll never be friends with this person again' [that] time is the opportunity. Time is the opportunity to heal. Time is the opportunity to forgive, to move on and to find a new way to be friends." Following his split from Garner, Affleck reunited with Lopez, who he was previously engaged to in 2002. The twosome, who initially split in 2003, rekindled their romance in 2021 and wed the following year. In August 2024, Lopez, 56, filed for divorce after two years of marriage.