Ben Affleck checks into rehab for alcoholism

Ben Affleck is again seeking treatment for alcoholism.

Newsday has confirmed a report first published by TMZ.com Wednesday that the 46-year-old Academy Award-winning filmmaker and actor, who has been candid about his alcohol issues, had relapsed but was committed to battling the disease.

Affleck's estranged wife, actress Jennifer Garner, also 46, held an intervention Wednesday at Affleck's new home in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades neighborhood, TMZ said. The "Justice League" and "Gone Girl" star acknowledged his issues and left with Garner around 6 p.m. on their way to a Los Angeles County treatment center, the website added. It said Affleck had resumed drinking after being sober for some unspecified amount of time and that his condition had steadily deteriorated.

People magazine ran a photo Wednesday of Garner at the wheel of a vehicle — accompanied on the front passenger's side by an unidentified woman — with Affleck in the back seat appearing red-faced and uncomfortable.

He has not commented publicly and his representatives had no immediate statement.

Affleck told USA Today in 1998 that he had quit drinking because, "I just wanted to stop. I started regretting some things I did when I was drunk. It's funny to be obnoxious or out of control, but then it's like, 'I think I hurt that person's feelings. I made a fool of myself' or 'I didn't want to kiss that girl.' I have almost no inhibitions, so it's dangerous for me."

In a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he conceded that in 2001 he "went into rehab for being 29 and partying too much and not having a lot of boundaries, and to clear my head and try to get some idea of who I wanted to be." He spoke of his alcoholic father, a philosophical janitor / bartender / mechanic who served as an inspiration for the title character of "Good Will Hunting." 

"His life sort of hit the skids when I was in my teens," the star said. "It was difficult. When one's parent is an alcoholic, it's hard. It was a little scary and trying, but then he got sober when I was twentysomething, and he's been sober ever since."

According to unverified reports, Affleck sought treatment again late last year.

This spring, nearly two years after he and Garner announced they were separating after 10 years of marriage, the actress formally filed for divorce. The couple has three children: daughters Violet, 12, and Seraphina, 9, and son Samuel, 6.