Ana de Armas is looking back at the media scrutiny that surrounded her highly publicized relationship with Ben Affleck.
During an interview for Elle‘s August issue, the “Knives Out” star reflected on the major downside of dating Affleck: the incessant media attention
De Armas described the nonstop attention as “horrible,” adding, “That’s one of the reasons why I left LA.”
While de Armas had seen other celebrities face public scrutiny, experiencing it firsthand made her realize that the City of Angels wasn’t exactly heaven on earth for her.
“Going through it [myself] confirmed my thoughts about, ‘This is not the place for me to be,'” The Gray Man star continued.
“This is not the place for me to be,” she said she told herself.
“It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out.”
The “Knives Out” actress said the city kept her “anxious” because in LA, there is “always the feeling of something that you don’t have, something missing.”
De Armas dated Affleck, 49, during the coronavirus pandemic and the former couple quarantined together. During this time, they were often photographed while walking their dogs or on coffee runs.
However, by January 2021, the “Deep Water” co-stars had called it quits after almost a year together.
Since going their separate ways in early 2021, both Affleck and de Armas have moved on with different partners. Affleck famously reconciled with former fiancée Jennifer Lopez, to whom he’s now engaged for the second time, while de Armas is dating and lives with Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis in New York.
De Armas is set to play agent Dani Miranda alongside Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, and Regé-Jean Page in “The Gray Man,” which hits theaters on July 15 and Netflix on July 22. And later this year, she’ll portray Marilyn Monroe in Netflix’s “Blonde,” out Sept. 23.
