Jennifer Affleck is standing by husband Zac Affleck as reality TV fans continue to question how their marriage was portrayed on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Jennifer, 25, took to Instagram on Thursday, September 19, to share a message reflecting on the highlights from her relationship with Zac, 27.
“We were just kids when we got married. Young, naive, and inexperienced, we truly had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Coming from completely different backgrounds, families, and upbringings, it didn’t seem to make sense. We were polar opposites,” she captioned the post. “How could we make this work? How could we see the same picture?”
The TV personality admitted that the twosome aren’t always on the same page, adding, “We didn’t always see eye to eye, and a lot of times, we still don’t. But that’s what marriage is, we keep trying. I truly believe there were lessons we both needed to teach each other.”
Jennifer praised Zac for how he supported her — emotionally and monetarily — since they started dating.
“Zac bought me my first laptop when he had $10 in his bank account. When I shared my dream of running a marathon, he trained alongside me and ran it with me. I told him I wanted to start my videography business, so he saved up money and bought me my first camera. When we were expecting our first baby, I wanted a place to call home, so he worked hard, saved up, and bought us our first house,” she continued. “He gave me both stability and freedom, which allowed me to post videos online and launch my career on social media. This, in turn allowed me to support him and our family while he’s been in school.”
While reflecting on her personal success on MomTok, Jennifer made it clear she “couldn’t have done it” without Zac by her side.
“Is Zac perfect? No. Does he have flaws that we’ve needed to address? Yes. But I can confidently say he’s always supported and believed in me more than anyone else,” she noted. “We’re still young, we have two precious babies, and we still have struggles like so many marriages. But do we love each other? Yes. Are we willing to put in the work to be better? Yes. Have there been moments when we wanted to walk away? Of course. But there’s so much more to our marriage and what we offer to each other than people realize.”
The post concluded: “Thank you to everyone who has shown us so much love and support, whether you know us personally or not. No matter what the world may say, I truly believe that God knows what’s best for me, my family, and my marriage. ❤️.”
Jennifer and Zac’s marriage became a major topic of conversation after The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which follows a group of Mormon mom influencers, debuted on Hulu earlier this month. Zac and Jennifer raised red flags at the end of the season when he told her she had “no values or morals” for enjoying a girls’ night out in Las Vegas.
“I definitely think it was the best thing to happen to our relationship. While watching the show, a lot of people are going to think that maybe this would break our relationship apart. But if anything, it did the opposite,” Jennifer exclusively told Us Weekly about how filming the show helped her marriage. “Being on camera and having those moments happen made us take a step back and actually look at a relationship and make us just see what we have to change.”
Jennifer clarified that she and Zac have made a lot of progress, saying, “Ever since we finished filming, we’ve been doing nonstop therapy and it’s been great. So if anything, [watching the show] is just going to be exposure therapy at this point. “We’ve healed and now we’re ready to talk about it once it comes out.”
At the time, Jennifer also shut down the insinuation that Zac was the reason she decided to leave MomTok. (They have since moved to New York City as Zac attends medical school.)
“It had a lot to do with just me and just figuring out everything. There are so many factors — not just our relationship — like religion, friendships and my children,” she explained. “In order to make the right decision for me and my family, I really had to take a step back and ask myself, ‘How am I going to move forward and what’s best for us?’ You’ll just have to wait for season 2 to see what happens.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is currently streaming on Hulu.