Batman star Ben Affleck loses mother

Chris Anne Affleck, the mother of Hollywood actors Ben and Casey Affleck, has died after battling pancreatic cancer.

She was 83.

The retired teacher died peacefully in her sleep on June 2, two days after fulfilling her final wish of attending her grandson’s high school graduation.

Her family announced the death in an obituary published on Thursday.

Chris Anne, whose full first name was Christopher, was diagnosed in December 2025 and told by doctors that she had about six months to live.

Following the diagnosis, her greatest wish was to survive long enough to witness her grandson complete high school.

She attended the graduation ceremony with her family on May 31 before dying in her sleep two days later.

Chris Anne is survived by her sons, Ben, 53, and Casey, 50, as well as five grandchildren: Indiana, Violet, Atticus, Fin and Samuel.

Her grandchildren were described in the obituary as the “animating force of her last two decades.”

Ben is widely known for portraying Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, in films including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League and The Flash.

Casey is also an Academy Award-winning actor, recognised for films including Manchester by the Sea.

Born in New York City in 1942, Chris Anne attended the elite Nightingale-Bamford School before studying at Radcliffe College.

She became one of the first Radcliffe women to receive a Harvard University diploma and later earned a master’s degree from the institution.

Despite her privileged education, the obituary said she remained sceptical of the exclusive environment surrounding her and developed a strong commitment to social justice.

During her school years, a teacher reportedly criticised her for condemning racial segregation under Jim Crow laws without first listening to what the teacher called the “other side.”

Chris Anne responded by using a payphone to contact a Woolworth’s store and ask whether it refused to serve Black customers.

The incident reflected what her family described as her willingness to admit that she might be wrong while refusing to allow uncertainty to become an excuse for inaction.

Her commitment to civil rights continued into adulthood.

During the 1960s, Chris Anne travelled to Mississippi to teach literacy classes as part of Freedom Summer, a campaign aimed at expanding voting rights and educational opportunities for Black Americans.

She also participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and embraced the era’s counterculture movement.

Rather than pursuing a more lucrative career after graduating from Harvard, Chris Anne became a public-school teacher.

She spent 35 years in the classroom before retiring in 2008.

Ben previously praised his mother’s academic background and devotion to education, saying she taught fifth and sixth-grade pupils in public schools after studying at Harvard.

Her obituary said she treated every student equally, regardless of whether the child had recently arrived from Haiti or belonged to an affluent Cambridge family.

After retiring, Chris Anne continued her political and humanitarian activities.

She volunteered during Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, travelled to Palestine and Israel in 2009 and later became involved with the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.

She was also a founding board member of the Sustainable Cape project.

Chris Anne had Ben and Casey with her former husband, Timothy Affleck, in 1972 and 1975 respectively.

The family moved to Massachusetts in the mid-1970s, where Chris Anne continued her teaching career.

She and Timothy later divorced when Ben was 12, after which he moved to California.

Casey previously credited his mother with maintaining stability in the family during that difficult period.

He recalled that she insisted on taking the family on holidays and visiting relatives, even when her sons would have preferred to remain at home with friends.

Although those decisions caused arguments at the time, Casey said the trips later became some of his most treasured childhood memories.

Chris Anne also supported Ben’s acting ambitions from an early age.

She introduced him to a casting-director friend from her university years, creating opportunities for the young Ben to audition for television films and commercials.

Ben later described his entry into acting as an almost accidental development that began because one of his mother’s friends worked in casting.

The early jobs gave him enough experience and exposure to continue pursuing acting as a career.

Chris Anne remained a prominent source of support throughout her son’s rise in Hollywood.

She accompanied Ben and his longtime friend Matt Damon to the Academy Awards in 1998, when the pair won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting.

Ben later recalled sitting beside their mothers during the ceremony and embracing them after their victory.

He said he never understood why people found it unusual that he and Damon brought their mothers, explaining that there was nobody else they would rather have taken.

Chris Anne also maintained a close relationship with Ben’s former wife, actress Jennifer Garner, after the couple ended their marriage.

She was repeatedly seen spending time with Garner and the three children Garner shares with Ben: Violet, Fin and Samuel.

Chris Anne also attended Ben’s 2022 wedding to singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.

She reportedly suffered a leg injury and was taken to hospital shortly before the ceremony but recovered in time to watch the couple exchange their vows.

Representatives for Ben and Casey had not issued separate public statements on their mother’s death at the time of the announcement.