Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner split: Actor drinking heavily again?

Ben Affleck had checked into a rehab centre in Malibu in 2001 to battle alcoholism.

American actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck is struck by reports that he is drinking again. According to Star Magazine, the Argo actor is hitting the bottle.

In 2001, he completed a 30-day treatment program at Malibu's Promises facility for alcohol abuse. The celebrity gossip website is stating that Affleck is turning to alcohol to deal with the fallout of his marriage to Jennifer Garner.

An alleged eyewitness said: "He looked like a shambling bum... He was bloated, red-faced and disheveled. All I could think of was, this is the guy who plays Bruce Wayne?"

The insider added that "friends fear that the culprit behind Ben's haggard appearance is booze."

"At 44 years old, the guy can't drink all night and bounce back the way he used to. He's drinking as much as ever," the source continued.

The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actor had previously revealed that he gave up alcohol to be good husband. He told The Mirror: "Simple as this, I quit drinking. It's really not that big a deal. It has no real bearing on anything else in my life. Your lifestyle changes at a certain age. Like me, a lot of my friends are married with kids. When you are in your 20s and you're not married with kids, you're having fun."

"But when you're in your 30s and you're not married and don't have kids, you begin to develop a Peter Pan complex. As you grow older, you have more responsibilities and you have to step up to them. I'm pretty happy. I don't want to jump off the roof or jump for joy depending on my movie reviews, or whether it makes money. I think the larger, more meaningful things are family and the people you love," Affleck added.