Jennifer Garner Likens Her Relationship With One Paparazzo to ‘Stockholm Syndrome’

Whether it’s Hudson Williams attempting to burn paparazzi’s pictures of him or Chappell Roan being demonized for going off on photographers, a star’s relationship with the paparazzi is an understandably bitter awakening to anyone who enters the realm of fame. It’s the worst part of the job. And poor Jennifer Garner has been through the f*cking wringer with it.

On a recent episode of Evan Ross Katz’s podcast, Shut Up Evan, Garner opened up about the interesting relationship she has with her own “assigned” paparazzi, i.e., the men who have more or less stalked her for the past two decades, and compared their bond to “Stockholm syndrome.” It’s terrifying. 

“I have two every day who’ve been assigned to me for 20-plus years, 25 years. It’s really interesting,” she explained. “I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy. … We have an odd respect for each other. We’ve had some really real-life moments together.” And let’s get this straight: The concept of a man being “assigned” to take photos of my children and me for DECADES would be enough for me to nuke the entire planet. She’s stronger than all of us. But she goes on to explain how, over the years, this “main guy” earned her trust.

“I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was going to hurt me, and I ran to him because I knew him and trusted him, and I knew that he and I would be okay,” Garner said. “There’s kind of a Stockholm Syndrome kind of thing. And at the same time, I’ve called the cops on him a million times, and been like, ‘Can you please just give me a walk around the block with my kids and my dog?”

“It was a danger to everyone around us,” she also added. “If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would go through the red behind me.”

Garner has been calling out the paparazzi’s behavior for years, and in 2013, she testified in front of the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety along with Halle Berry, in support of a bill that would restrict ‘paparazzi’s right to photograph the children of celebrities without consent.

“Kids were at the center of it,” she told Katz. “I lived on the street with a lot of much more famous and successful people than I, but they followed me because I had the kids.” Well, I can only describe everything I’ve heard here today as f*cked up.

Our sick obsession with celebrities drove Garner into a Stockholm syndrome relationship and made Berry want to flee the country. I’ve heard enough. Burn the cameras.

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