Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner were close friends when they filmed the 2004 romantic comedy 13 Going on 20, but they have lost touch over the years. Mark says Jen’s husband Ben Affleck is to blame. Might this be true or did the old friends simply lose touch with one another?

It was during an interview on Andy Cohen’s Bravo show Watch What Happens Live, on which he appeared with his Begin Again costar Keira Knightley, that the topic first arose. Now it’s circulating social media, the internet, and even TV celebrity news.

Watch What Happens Live gives fans the opportunity to call or tweet in to the show and ask questions of the celebrity guests. Of course the fact that these calls or tweets come in live means practically any topic might come up and guests are frequently caught completely off guard.

TONIGHT: The stars of Begin Again @MarkRuffalo and KEIRA KNIGHTLEY join me in the #WWHL Clubhouse! Tweet me Qs for them NOW!

— Andy Cohen (@Andy) June 26, 2014

One fan called in to the show asking if Mark keeps in touch with Jennifer Garner.

“We had a great time together, and I think we would, but then Ben [Affleck] came on the scene and that was the end of that,” Mark Ruffalo replied.

“I heard he doesn’t allow her to have male friends,” Andy Cohen said, joking, “I made that up!”

Was he trying to make light of what could in fact be a rather serious scenario or just behaving in his typical Andy Cohen manner?

Mark Ruffalo pled the fifth to Andy Cohen’s remark, adding that he was “sad” not to maintain his friendship with Jennifer Garner.

Jennifer Garner began dating Ben Affleck the same year 13 Going on 30 was released. They married the following year and are now the parents of three children. Violet is 8, Seraphina is 5, and Samuel is 2.

Mark Ruffalo was married to Sunrise Cougney while he was friends with Jennifer Garner, and that didn’t seem to be a big deal. He and the French-American actress married in 2000 and have three children together.

Is it possible that Jennifer Garner has lost touch with other male friends because of Ben Affleck? Is he a controlling husband? Is she missing out on what might have been a lifelong platonic friendship with the Begin Again star.

Hopefully all of this is nothing more than a huge dramatization of something that simply came out in conversation. Mark Ruffalo probably said what he did completely off the cuff–never meaning for it to gain the media attention it seems to keep gaining.

Did Mark Ruffalo unwittingly cast an unfavorable light on Ben Affleck? Or is there a bit more to this story?

Image via Wikimedia Commons