Jennifer Garner reveals why her kids were 'mortified' watching '13 Going on 30'?

The actress recalled 'cringe' parenting moment caused by her own movie

By Maliha Javed
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February 27, 2026
Jennifer Garner reveals why kids were 'mortified' watching '13 Going on 30'?

Jennifer Garner is spilling a rare insight into how her hit rom-com, 13 Going on 30, became a "torture" for her kids.

In a recent chat with Kylie Kelce on her Not Gonna Lie podcast, the 53-year-old actress, who shares three kids, Samuel, 13, Violet, 20, and Seraphina, 17, with ex-husband Ben Affleck.

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The kids did not want to see Garner's 2004 film after “they went through some tortured years where they were turning 13," Garner told Kelce.

“[13 Going on 30] was showing up at birthday parties a lot, or sleepovers, and the parents thought, ‘Oh, this will be a fun thing.’”

She went on to explain, “My kids were, first of all, mortified, And second of all, so upset to see me sad, so upset to see me being in love… and, also, it's just so cringe.”

“I got a couple of calls from sleepovers, like, ‘I think I have a headache. I’m like, ‘A headache? You’ve never had a headache, but you need me to get you? OK.’”

All things aside, Garner is truly enjoying her kids' teenage era.

“The cool thing is teenagers are amazing,” the Last Thing He Told Me star said on the podcast. “They're funny. They have all these interests you never could have predicted. They're thoughtful.”

Garner added of parenting teenage kids, “Everybody has their moments. We have our moments, but you grow up with them. It's not like somebody's gonna hand you a 14-year-old and say, ‘Here, deal with this.’ You will have been through every age.”

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