Ben Affleck once escaped a terrifying teenage mugging after recognizing the boys holding him at knifepoint. Years later, he learned one of those boys had killed someone and served 20 years in prison.
The actor recently revisited the encounter while reflecting on his childhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What began as a frightening walk home eventually became a memory that followed him into parenthood.
Ben Affleck recalls he was nearly robbed by someone who was convicted of murder years later
Affleck shared the story during an interview with Kerry Washington on her Street You Grew Up On podcast. He recalled walking home from high school at around 15 when two boys in hoods crossed the street toward him. Affleck initially considered running but decided against it. “They pass me, grab me, take a knife out: ‘Gimme your money,’” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh!’ I was scared.”
The situation changed when Affleck recognized the teenagers from playing baseball. The boys also recognized him, turning the encounter from a mugging into a strange neighborhood exchange. “So I was like, ‘I guess I’m off the hook?’” he remembered. Affleck later discovered that one of the boys had taken a much darker path. “That kid who robbed me ended up three or four years later killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years,” he said.
He also admitted that he never told his mother about the incident. Affleck said he avoided worrying her and now regretted keeping difficult experiences to himself. “I didn’t wanna worry her. I didn’t wanna scare her,” he explained. That silence became especially meaningful after Affleck became a father. “You guys know you can tell me anything. Anything! I’m so cool with anything you have to say,” he recalled telling his children.
Affleck also described his childhood neighborhood as working-class, with racial tensions and violence shaping his early years. Still, he remembered friendships crossing those divides. “But also, that you were with everybody. And friendship kind of superseded that,” he said.
