Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner‘s daughter Violet recalled having a tense argument with her famous mom in a candid essay for Yale.
The Ivy League college student, 19, wrote about clashing with the Alias star, 53, over climate change, after her family escaped to a hotel to avoid the smoke from the Los Angeles fires in January.
While waiting out the fires in a luxury accommodations, the nepo baby — who frequently jets around between the East and West coast — also complained that the behavior of the ‘wealthiest citizens’ was a driving force behind the ‘climate crisis.’
‘I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,’ she began her essay, titled, ‘A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles.’
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.’
‘My question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when,’ Violet — who made a public plea for ‘mask mandates’ last year — added.
Ben Affleck, 52, and Jennifer Garner’s, 53, daughter Violet, 19, recalled having a tense argument with her mom in a candid essay for Yale; Jennifer and Violet pictured May 18 in LA
The young activist, who referred to herself as a ‘climate-literate member of Generation Z’, published the research paper in the school’s Global Health Review on May 18.
Speaking of Garner, who also shares Fin (formerly Seraphina), 16, and Samuel, 13, with ex-husband Ben, 52, Violet wrote: ‘She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings.’
‘I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when.’
‘As I chatted with adults in the hotel where we’d gone to escape the smoke, though, I found my position to be an uncommon one: people spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been,’ Violet went on.
‘The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains.’
Violet recalled how her younger brother, Samuel, was seemingly skeptical of her linking the wildfires to climate change, as he asked, ‘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.’
In her essay, the teenager reflected on broader generational differences and society’s approach to crises like COVID-19.
She argued that society mishandles systemic crises like climate change and pandemics — specifically COVID-19 — treating them as isolated events rather than ongoing, interconnected problems needing long-term solutions.
The college student wrote about clashing with Garner over climate change, after they escaped to a hotel to avoid the smoke from the Los Angeles fires in January; They are pictured in 2024
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’
While waiting out the fires in a luxury accommodations, the nepo baby — who frequently jets around between the East and West coast — also complained that the behavior of the ‘wealthiest citizens’ was a driving force behind the ‘climate crisis’; seen May 2024 in LA
Writing of her surprise at Garner’s reaction to the wildfires, Violet stated, ‘As a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when’; They are seen in 2022
Violet — who attended billionaire CEO Michael Rubin’s Hamptons party with her father and former stepmother Jennifer Lopez in 2023 — went on to describe the ‘climate crisis’ as ‘existential and accelerating.’
She said it was ‘driven by unsustainable consumption patterns concentrated among the wealthiest citizens of the wealthiest countries, all of which have already subjected most of this country and the world to deadly temperatures, fire-flood cycles, rising seas, and dying crops.’
Violet went on to discuss the government’s handling of COVID and the pressure for society to ‘return to normal.’
Speaking of the disease, she wrote, ‘While vaccines have been extremely effective in reducing death rates, those of us who have never stopped “following the science” know that even mild COVID infections are dangerous.’
Violet went on to claim that ‘Long COVID’ — when a person experiences health problems long after their initial COVID-19 infection — ‘can even affect very healthy people.’
She then warned: ‘We haven’t treated bird flu as a serious health problem, and probably won’t until it explodes into the population with the onset of airborne human-to-human transmission, at which point – if the COVID response is our example – we’ll have lost hope of controlling it before the virus’s significantly higher mortality rate strikes a meaningful blow.’
Violet then pointed out how privilege and bias heavily influence who gets help and who is ignored.
‘The FEMA assistance quickly rushed to homeowners in the Palisades – many of whom are significant political donors – has flowed much more slowly to Asheville, North Carolina, where thousands were stranded in disastrous floods in 2024.’
Violet recalled how her younger brother, Samuel, 13, was seemingly skeptical of her linking the wildfires to climate change, as he asked, ‘what did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?’ She quipped: ‘Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother’; Samuel and Ben pictured in 2024
‘The stringent COVID-19 precautions observed earlier in the pandemic melted away as it became known that Black and disabled people were most vulnerable to serious illness and death, and as Long COVID entered the canon of chronic illnesses ascribed to “hysteria” or “malingering” among their mostly-female sufferers.’
She argued that ‘centering disability justice and refusing eugenicist logics’ are ‘essential to climate justice strategy.’
Towards the end of her lengthy essay, Violet wrote, ‘We can “follow the science” even when it scares us, instead of insisting that “we have to live our lives” until those lives go up in flames.’
Her famous mom previously opened up about the devastating fires while volunteering to feed communities in the Pacific Palisades in January.
The actress was seen lending support to World Central Kitchen (WCK) which is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that provides food relief.
In an interview with MSNBC she emotionally revealed that she had ‘lost a friend’ during the catastrophic event.
Elsewhere in her conversation the actress stated, ‘I’ve lived in and around the Palisades for 25 years, so I just think all of us, we want to get our hands into working, somehow, to be helpful.’
Meanwhile Violet is no stranger to activism. In January it was reported that Violet was hoping the devastating wildfires in LA would encourage others to understand the importance of preventing a ban on face masks.
Violet was said to have been ‘pressuring’ her famous parents and siblings to protect themselves with face coverings amid the hazardous air quality caused by the terrifying blazes.
‘She is clearly not going to give up on advocating for mask mandates. It has become a part of who she is and what she stands for,’ an insider told DailyMail.com.
In January, it was reported that Violet was hoping the devastating wildfires would encourage others to understand the importance of preventing a ban on face masks; Seen with Affleck and former stepmom Jennifer Lopez in the Hamptons in 2023
Last year Violet demanded the imposition of ‘mask mandates’ in medical facilities and called for an end to all ‘mask bans’ in a plea to the governing body for LA County
Last year she demanded the imposition of ‘mask mandates’ in medical facilities and called for an end to all ‘mask bans’ in a passionate plea to the governing body for Los Angeles County.
She cited her experience of contracting ‘a post-viral condition’ in 2019, and urged the LA County Board of Supervisors ‘to confront the long COVID crisis’ by strengthening pandemic-era protections in hospitals and government buildings.
‘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,’ Violet, who is often seen wearing a face mask, said.
‘You must expand the availability of high-quality free tests and treatment, and most importantly the county must oppose mask bans for any reason. They do not keep us safer.’
Violet’s controversial speech was met with both praise and criticisms, with some hailing her as ‘courageous’ and others ‘utterly deluded’.
Her father Ben reportedly told her that she needs to be ‘realistic’ about her campaigning and can’t rely on his celebrity status after she was left ‘extremely disheartened’ by the response to her speech on mask mandates.
Violet, the eldest daughter of the former celebrity couple, was said to be struggling with the ‘ridicule’ and had been left feeling ‘alone’ in her fight to strengthen pandemic-era protections.
‘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,’ an insider told DailyMail.com.
‘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.’
It comes after Violet was recently spotted towering over her famous mom during a grocery run in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The pair could have passed as sisters as they picked up a few goods from Whole Foods.
The Yale student opted not to wear her usual facemask as she strode through the parking lot, a single bag from the store in her hand.
Garner and Affleck also share Fin (formerly Seraphina), 15; The actress is seen with her three kids in 2018
The former pair married in 2005. They announced their separation in 2015 after nearly 10 years of marriage, and officially filed for divorce in 2017; seen in May 2014
In late 2023 Garner, appearing on Live with Kelly and Mark, called Violet ‘a self-starter’ who had been ‘totally in charge’ of mapping out her collegiate curriculum.
Garner added, ‘I’m proud of her no matter what.’
Garner and Affleck have remained on good terms after their 2018 divorce and earlier this year sparked reconciliation rumors after Ben pulled her in for an embrace.
They were married from 2005 to 2018. She is currently dating businessman John Miller, with whom she first became linked to following her divorce from Ben.
Last month Ben praised Jennifer and their co-parenting partnership during an interview with British GQ.
‘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.’
