Like her mother and grandmother before her, Jennifer Garner has centered her home life around comfort and nurturing.
The actress recently offered Better Homes & Gardens an intimate look at her life at home with the three children she shares with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck.
Credit: Celeste Sloman/BHG
Just outside the house Garner describes as “very ‘sit-able’ and cozy,” there is a lush vegetable garden and fruit trees inspired by her childhood memories growing up in Charleston, West Virginia. Here she grows her own potatoes, eggplants, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, plums, peaches, cherries, apricots, and more.
She recalls being a kid and watching her mother, Patricia, care for her and her two sisters through home-cooked meals. “My mom made every bite of food that went into my mouth,” Garner says in the June/July cover story.
Whether it’s fresh bagels or a warm loaf of cinnamon bread (she has yet to conquer sourdough) waiting on the counter, the actress tries to provide the same thing for her own kids—in between projects, of course.
“If I’m really home all day, I am cooking for people,” she tells BHG. “Because that’s what everyone wants.”
Credit: Celeste Sloman/BHG
Garner says her “instinct to nurture” traces back generations, to the small farm in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, where her mom grew up. The Golden Globe winner now helps oversee the property alongside her aunt and uncle, who grow produce they donate to local food banks.
Garner’s passion for good food and taking care of loved ones came in handy with her latest role. She plays “chef-fluencer” Hollis Shaw in The Five Star Weekend, a new Peacock series based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel. Garner tells BHG that playing Hollis “was the most clear, loud, screaming ‘Yes’ you could imagine. The only problem with it was: Am I too close to this character?”
Fortunately, there are plenty of differences between them.
“Hollis is more stylish than I am,” Garner insists. “Naturally, she’s more organized than I am. She’s a pretty baker, and I’m a messy baker.” Still, “I might be a messier cook, but [Hollis] has a messier life.”
Jennifer Garner’s cover story appears in the July/August 2026 issue of Better Homes & Gardens and is available online at bhg.com/jennifer.
Read the original article on Southern Living
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