Ben Affleck says a knifepoint robbery from his Cambridge, Massachusetts, childhood took a far darker turn years later, when he learned that one of the two boys who mugged him went on to kill someone and spend 20 years behind bars. The actor shared the story while talking with Kerry Washington about the neighborhood where he grew up, recalling a frightening encounter he survived largely because he recognized his attackers from the baseball diamond.
A Walk Home Turns Into a Knifepoint Robbery
Affleck made the revelation on the September 30 episode of Washington’s podcast, Street You Grew Up On, after she asked him whether he had ever been robbed growing up in Cambridge, according to People. Affleck said he was walking home from high school when he spotted two boys in hoods across the street. “I was walking home from high school, I was 14 maybe, and I saw these two kids in like literal hoods,” he said, per the outlet. In a separate account of the same conversation, Entertainment Weekly reported Affleck gave his age as 15 instead, quoting him saying, “I was walking home from high school, I was 15, maybe.”
Whatever his exact age, Affleck described the two boys crossing the street and closing in on him fast. “They pass me, grab me, take a knife out, [and say] ‘Give me your money,’” he recalled, according to the same People account. He said his first instinct was to run, but he decided to play it cool instead, and admitted plainly that the moment terrified him. “I was scared,” Affleck said.
Recognizing the Robbers Changed Everything
What kept the encounter from escalating, Affleck said, was recognition. He told Washington he knew the two boys from playing baseball and placed them as older kids from the neighborhood, saying, “I recognized them from playing baseball and they were like older boys that I knew.” That familiarity appears to have been enough to get him released without injury, according to the account relayed by People.
Years later, Affleck said, he learned the story didn’t end there for one of the boys who robbed him. He told Washington that the same person killed someone else with a knife a few years after the mugging and was sentenced to two decades in prison, according to Yahoo Entertainment. “That kid who robbed me ended up, I don’t know three or four years later, killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years,” Affleck said, per People. The claim rests on Affleck’s own account on the podcast; no police, court or prison records identifying the alleged attacker have been reported alongside it, and the broadcaster TMZ was first to report on TMZ that Affleck had shared the story.
A Podcast Built Around Childhood Streets
Washington’s show, now in its fifth season, is built around exactly this kind of reflection, asking guests to revisit the neighborhoods and experiences that shaped them. The season premiered Wednesday, with new episodes set to roll out weekly, according to Variety. The format, per the trade outlet, is centered on exploring how childhood, family, community and belonging continue to shape its guests’ identities — a premise that made room for Affleck to revisit a moment from his own Cambridge upbringing that has stuck with him for decades.
