Another day, another crop of stories about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s divorce. Of course the public is interested, we want to know the details, but it’s interesting to me just how tightly the Affleck-Garner camp is trying to control the narrative. As we saw yesterday, there are multiple stories in multiple outlets with “exclusive” details, told in slightly different ways. I don’t think this is a case of an echo chamber of gossip, it seems to be a careful spread of information across the celebrity sites. At no point does anyone mention Ben’s dalliances with other women, as has been widely assumed, but you can bet the tabloids will dig that up. They had the split news over a month ago, after all.

Here are some of the stories about why they divorced. We previously heard how they’re going to divorce, with assurances that it would all be done amicably and with consideration for their children. If they’re able to pull this off as planned it sounds like a sane way to go about it.

Ben is “devastated” and they tried to save the marriage
People’s source: “He’s devastated. Nobody intends to go down this path. They both battled, and he really battled to try and save the marriage but ultimately it was the best thing for the kids and for him and Jen.”

E!’s source: “You can’t simplify why a marriage breaks down. It’s not one thing. It happens for many reasons. [They] tried for two years to make their marriage work. They finally realized that they just couldn’t get there.”

They’re trying to make it easy on the kids
People’s source: “They’ve been separated for 10 months but he was living at the house,. These are things that they have consciously done because they want to make sure that this is as easy as they can make it on the kids.”

Ben’s career got in the way of their marriage
TMZ: “[Jennifer’s] beef was that Ben wasn’t a ‘present husband.’ Fact is … Ben has had back-to-back film projects for several years, and spent much of his time out of town. The sources say Jen felt ignored and neglected, and they argued frequently over it.”

E!’s source: “They were a great team as parents, but with each other, they didn’t want the same things. After spending a lot of time figuring that out, they came to the decision that the best thing for them and for the children would be to make a change.”

They’re both committed parents
TMZ: “[Ben] is a great dad who does everything he can for the kids. [Jennifer] didn’t really have any beef about his parenting skills, her problem was with Ben as a husband.”

E!’s source: “Jen is a great mother and Ben is a great dad.”

Do you see how all these stories mirror each other? None of these outlets would be claiming exclusives with such detailed quotes unless they got them from official sources. This is one of the most well orchestrated celebrity divorces I’ve ever seen, although it’s early days yet.

In non-official stories, we have the inevitable rumor that Ben’s friendship with Jennifer Lopez was the catalyst for his divorce. You guys have said you would love it if Ben and J.Lo got together again and of course that would be good for gossip. While Lopez has admitted that she still occasionally emails Ben, and they did flirt at the Oscars, I doubt this is true. He ditched her just before they reached the altar and he’s going to be on the prowl for strange, not for someone familiar. Plus he has talked smack about J.Lo multiple times. He’s not going to open himself up to the kind of scrutiny that would go along with dating her again.

In related news, these two are carrying on with their careers. Affleck will appear at Comic-Con on July 11 to promote Batman v. Superman, and Garner made an appearance at a children’s hospital in Boston, to research an upcoming role, on Friday.

File photos credit: FameFlynet and Pacific Coast News