Jennifer Garner's chilly reunion with woke Violet after their hotel blowup over teen's privileged rant

Daily Mail​

27-06-2025

Jennifer Garner looked noticeably stern as she reunited with daughter Violet on Friday—just weeks after the teen publicly aired their hotel room spat over climate change.
The 19-year-old, whom Garner shares with ex-husband Ben Affleck, recently went viral for a Yale essay in which she detailed a heated argument with her mom, 53, during a January stay at a luxury hotel.
The family had evacuated their Los Angeles home to escape the city's wildfire smoke—something Violet later criticized as a privileged response to the climate crisis.
According to a DailyMail.com exclusive, Garner and Affleck were reportedly blindsided by the essay and had no idea Violet had written about the incident for her college paper.
But on Friday night, the mother-daughter duo appeared to be working through the tension as they stepped out for dinner at celeb-favorite A.O.C. in Brentwood.
Dressed in a striped sweater and jeans, Garner looked deep in conversation with her daughter, who wore a red pullover and flowing maxi skirt.
Of course, Violet faced some backlash for toting high-end accessories in the days following her climate change rant.
In May, she was photographed carrying a vintage Chloé Marcie bucket bag—an item that typically resells for around $1,000.
Just days earlier, the Yale freshman had also been spotted with a Marc Jacobs purse valued between $200 and $300.
The sightings sparked criticism online, with some questioning whether her message about climate privilege aligned with her own designer tastes.
The news comes after Violet stepped out with her Oscar-winning father as well as her younger brother Samuel, 13, to grab a lowkey lunch - and had draped the stylish bag over her arm.
Affleck and Garner - whose divorce was finalized in 2018 - are also parents to child Fin, 16.
Violet has been vocal about her advocacy for both climate change and public health - such as the student demanding 'mask mandates' last year during an impassioned speech.
But she recently penned an essay for her university's Global Health Review which was titled A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles.
The Gen Zer detailed an argument that she had with her mom Jennifer Garner in the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged through Southern California at the beginning of the year.
She had stated that while the 13 Going On 30 actress was left 'shell-shocked' over the devastation - Violet admitted that she was simply 'surprised at her surprise.'
In the paper which was published on May 18, the student wrote of Garner: '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.'
Violet then recalled having conversations with adults while staying at a hotel with her family 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.
'The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains.'
The Yale student also wrote about how her younger brother Samuel had doubts that the fires were linked to climate change.
'Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother,' she added.
Garner had volunteered with World Central Kitchen in the wake of the disaster to help feed firefighters and victims of the flames.
During an emotional interview with MSNBC, the actress also revealed that she had lost a friend in the fires.
Elsewhere in her school essay, Violet penned about society's approach when it comes to a crisis - and used COVID-19 as an example.
She wrote about the government tackling the pandemic and facing the pressures to 'return to normal' by society.
'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.'
Other topics Violet touched on included the effects of Long COVID and how privilege or bias can affect who receives a quick response for aid.
She then followed up with an example about FEMA's differing response to the L.A. fires and the floods in North Carolina last year.
At the time of the flames in January, Violet had also 'pressured' her family into wearing face masks once again due to poor air quality.
A source told DailyMail.com: 'Violet Affleck has been pressuring her family to put a mask on since she has been back home because right now the air quality is unhealthy.
'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.'
The insider added that the college student 'is so passionate about this and she feels vindicated for her work championing masks because she does, truly, believe that her opposition to the ban is warranted.
'She is hoping the fires will serve to show people that masks can be used in times not only connected to the spread of a virus.'
Last year in July, Violet had asked that 'mask bans' come to an end inside medical facilities during a speech to the governing body for Los Angeles County.
She further asked the board to 'confront the long COVID crisis' and explained how she had contracted 'a post-viral condition' back in 2019.
The teenager said at the time, '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.
'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 speech garnered differing reactions - with some praising the Ivy League student while others called her 'utterly deluded.'
Her father Ben also gave his eldest child a warning and told her that she needed to be 'realistic,' a source told DailyMail.com.
'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.
'He knows how strongly she feels about this, but now that Violet is an adult, he felt that it was his duty to let her know that she is David fighting Goliath and that most people unfortunately do not feel the same way she does about this.'
The insider added the Ben, '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.'