Jennifer Garner Reveals She ‘Lost a Friend’ in the L.A. Fires
Jennifer Garner has revealed that she “lost a friend” in the Los Angeles wildfires that raged this week through the city.
“I did lose a friend, and for our church, it’s really tender so I don’t feel like we should talk about it yet,” the 52-year-old actress told MSNBC reporter Katy Tur on Friday, her voice breaking. “I did lose a friend. She didn’t get out in time.”
The 13 Going on 30 star, who has lived for 25 years in and around the Pacific Palisades, the neighborhood at the center of the devastation, said many of her friends’ homes have been impacted by the tragedy.
“My heart bleeds for my friends. I mean, I can think of 100 families, and there are 5,000 homes lost,” she said. “I can—without even [thinking]—I could just write out a list of 100 friends who lost their homes.”
The fires, which erupted Tuesday, have killed at least 11 people, with that number expected to grow, according to officials.
Garner on Friday joined Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen organization to help feed firefighters on the frontlines.
“I just think all of us, we want to get our hands into working, somehow, to be helpful,” she said.
The actress, who shares kids Violet, 19, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12, with ex-husband Ben Affleck, revealed that her own $7.9 million home in Brentwood, just south of the Palisades, has been spared in the fires.
“I feel almost guilty walking through my house,” she said, adding that it prompted her to join volunteer efforts with Andrés.
“What can I do? How can I help? What can I offer? What do I have to offer with these hands and these walls and the safety that I have?”
Andrés, who founded his organization in 2010 to distribute meals during tragedies around the globe, said his team responded to help the Palisades community one hour after the fires began.
“We’re feeding people in shelters, we’re feeding first responders, we are adapting. because the situation keeps evolving day by day,” he said.
