Wait, Are Zac and Jennifer Affleck Really Even Related to Ben Affleck?

There's no denying that both Zac Affleck and Jennifer Affleck stand on their own as cast members of the Hulu reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. However, there's also no denying that part of their initial allure was their claim that Zac is related to actor Ben Affleck. And now that there is some skepticism about that, fans are wondering if Zac and Jen really are related to him or not.

If Zac isn't a second or third cousin, as he has claimed to be, it's not like Zac and Jen will no longer have a place among the rest of the Secret Lives cast members. But to make such a big lie and know it's a lie is sort of icky for fans to handle, especially when no one is really wild about Zac as it is. As far as Jen goes, it's safe to say that she is forgiven either way.

On Reddit, one user went down a rabbit hole to discover how true the claims really are regarding Zac's father's side of the family being related to Ben. According to the user, they figured out that if Zac's dad and Ben are cousins, it would have to mean that Zac's close relatives and Ben's close relatives were geographically in the same area at one point. And as far as the user can tell, Ben's family has deep New England roots, while Zac and his parents are born and bred in Utah.

"According to genealogies, Timothy's only sibling is a man named Stephen Affleck," the user wrote, in reference to Ben's dad, whose name is Timothy. "I've gone back like 2-3 generations and Ben Affleck's family has always resided on the east coast (NY, RI, Massachusetts). Even Gordon's father (Zac's grandfather) was born, raised, and died in Utah. And that man's father came from England. It's just impossible."

They then went back through multiple generations of alleged genealogy and found that they can't find evidence of Ben and Zac being second cousins or of Zac's dad and Ben being second cousins either. On the show, Jen does say "second cousins" in reference to the way Zac and Ben are related. But no one from Zac's family and Ben himself have come out to set the record straight either way.

If there's one thing that viewers took away from the first season of Secret Lives, it's Zac's opinions and values when it comes to his wife. And many of those values seem to stem from this upbringing, which was in a strict Mormon home that forbade drinking alcohol and abides by other traditional Mormon rules.

Zac's mom, Kristel, has been vocal on social media about how she feels that the way her son was unjustly portrayed on the show. Zac's dad is a heart surgeon according to Zac and Jen, and Zac intends to follow in his footsteps. He might just need to embrace the MomTok of it all, however, so she can continue to support him as he works his way there.