Ben Affleck and his mother Chris Affleck at the premiere of ‘Jersey Girl’ on March 9, 2004. (Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
Chris Anne Affleck, the mother of actors Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck, has died, according to an obituary posted online. The former school teacher was 83.
According to the obituary published this week, Chris Affleck was born in New York City in 1942 and died in early June 2026.
She was given “six months to live” in December 2025, and attended her grandson’s high school graduation prior to her death, according to the remembrance. The obituary does not state her diagnosis or the cause of her death.
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck for comment.
The mother of the two Hollywood actors attended Nightingale-Bamford School in New York and “made the most of an elite education while remaining skeptical of the tightly cloistered world it represented,” according to the obituary.
Chris Affleck graduated from Harvard, pursued a career as a public school teacher and taught literacy classes in Mississippi, the obituary said.
Along with her two sons Ben and Casey, she is survived by five grandchildren: Indiana, Violet, Atticus, Fin and Sam.
According to the obituary, Chris Affleck pursued a life of political and social activism, volunteering on the Obama campaign, organizing with Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine and helping found the Sustainable Cape project in Massachusetts.
Ben Affleck famously brought his mother to the Oscars with him in 1998 alongside Matt Damon and his mother.
Busy Philipps attends Clooney Foundation For Justice’s The Albies at New York Public Library on Sept. 26, 2024, in New York City. (Gotham/FilmMagic via Getty Images))
Actress Busy Philipps says she’s “grateful to be alive” after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.
In an exclusive interview with People, the Freaks and Geeks actress shared how the brain tumor was discovered and what the recovery process for her was like.
Philipps said that the discovery of the tumor began in June 2025 with her asking her doctor at her yearly physical about their opinion on full-body MRI screenings, which have recently become increasingly popular for detecting early-stage cancers, autoimmune disorders and more. Her doctor told her there was no need for one because he told her she was healthy.
Months later, the actress said that she got a second opinion from a doctor in her family who told her the screenings were great, saying, “Knowledge is power.”
Philipps said that her scan was scheduled in February 2026, a day after the death of her friend and former Dawson’s Creek co-star James Van Der Beek. Days later, she received the results of the scan, which revealed a lesion in her brain.
While recalling the moment that she had to get an MRI scan done, Philipps said, “My life was sort of flashing before my eyes a little bit.”
After learning the results of her scan, the actress said she got in touch with her daughter’s neurologist, Dr. Orrin Devinsky, who treats her for epilepsy. He reviewed her scan and told Philipps that the tumor had to come out. Devinsky then introduced Philipps to Dr. Golfinos, who facilitated the surgery.
When it came to telling her daughters Birdie Leigh Silverstein and Cricket Pearl Silverstein, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Silverstein, Philipps said that she had to be “honest” with them, adding that Birdie took the news much harder and said she was “really, really scared.”
“I just kept saying to her, ‘Birdie, you’re just not in the movie where your mom dies senior year of high school, that’s just not the movie that you’re in. I promise you,'” she said.
After the surgery, Philipps said that doctors learned that the tumor was 2.8 cm by 1.8 cm and it was located on her right frontal lobe. After testing a sample of the tumor, doctors told her that it was a stage 2 glioma “caused by an IDH mutation.” According to the National Institutes of Health, gliomas are “the most common primary brain tumors of the central nervous system.”
Treatment for gliomas may vary based on tumor stage, with some patients undergoing surgery only and some patients needing to undergo additional treatment such as radiation and chemotherapy to destroy remaining cancer cells, according to the NIH. The actress said the doctors removed the tumor completely, and she isn’t undergoing any other treatment at this time. But she does have to get scans every three months for the next two years.
“It really is sort of the best case scenario of the worst case scenario, I suppose,” Philipps said.
While the surgery appeared to have gone smoothly for Philipps, it was a second procedure that she said “really threw me.”
Six weeks after the initial surgery, Philipps said she was told her that her surgical incisions needed debridement, which, according to the NIH, is the removal of dead, damaged, infected or foreign tissue from a wound to help healthy tissue heal.
Following the procedure, Philipps said doctors found two different forms of staphylococcus infection. She also said she was on a high dose of oral antibiotics for 29 days.
Philipps said that she healed after the debridement and that she hopes that others, especially women, can learn from her experience.
“First of all, there’s nothing to be afraid of in having information, it’s only empowering,” she said. “And secondly, if you feel anything, don’t let some doctor be like, there’s — ‘I don’t like it, you don’t need to do it. That’s a waste of time.’ See things through if you can.”
Jared Leto arrives at the premiere of ‘Tron: Ares’ at TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 6, 2025, in Hollywood, California. (Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage via Getty Images)
Jared Leto has responded to allegations of sexual misconduct from several women made in a new BBC report and documentary.
The BBC spoke to 10 women for its new documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, with nine of the women speaking out publicly for the first time, according to a companion report published Wednesday.
Five women alleged that they received sexual phone calls from the actor, the BBC reported. Of those, four allege they were teenagers at the time, the report states.
ABC News has not independently verified the allegations in the BBC report.
Leto responded to the allegations in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.
“I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life,” he said. “These claims are absolutely and categorically false.”
The allegations of sexual misconduct against Leto in the report include allegations he sexually assaulted a girl in a motel bathroom when she was 17 years old, a threat of sexual assault against a 19-year-old and an allegation that Leto groomed a girl by making sexually explicit phone calls to her when she was 16. Another woman included in the report accused Leto of statutory rape, saying she was 17 years old at the time of the alleged assault, which she alleged took place in California, where the age of consent is 18.
One woman included in the report described an alleged interaction with Leto in which she claimed he made an inappropriate sexual remark to her at a music festival when she was 14 years old. The woman claimed Leto made the comment in front of her mother, who confronted him about the comment, which she said he dismissed, according to the BBC report.
All of the women in the BBC report said their alleged encounters with Leto occurred between 2002 and 2016.
Leto has faced allegations of sexual impropriety previously. In 2025, Air Mail reported allegations from nine women who claimed Leto had acted in a sexually inappropriate manner with them or made sexually explicit remarks to them that made them feel uncomfortable. Leto “expressly denied” the accusations in a statement to the outlet through his representative.
ABC News also reached out to Leto for comment on the allegations detailed in Air Mail’s report.
Leto has been acting since the early ’90s and most recently appeared in the film Masters of the Universe. He earned an Academy Award in 2014 for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, in which he starred opposite that year’s best actor Oscar winner, Matthew McConaughey.
Beyond acting, Leto has found success with his rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he formed with his brother, Shannon Leto, in 1998.
Marcello Hernandez attends the 2025 Night of Too Many Stars at Beacon Theatre on March 31, 2025 in New York City. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
The 2026 ESPY Awards are almost here and this year, the annual awards ceremony honoring the best in sports will feature a new host.
Comedian Marcello Hernández will present the star-studded evening, which is returning to New York City this year. Hernández is taking over duties from comedian Shane Gillis, who hosted last year from Los Angeles.
“It is an honor, and frankly feels crazy to be hosting the ESPYS this year in New York,” Hernández said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m sure the energy is going to be great.”
Hernández is described by ESPN as an “avid sports fan” who played soccer at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio.
The ESPYS, which first began at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 1993, will take place on Wednesday, July 15 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.
The 2026 ESPYS will air live at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and stream on the ESPN app. The awards ceremony will also be available to stream on Disney+, Hulu, the ESPN App, and ABC Video on Demand on July 16.
Craig Lazarus, executive producer of the ESPYS, called Hernández a “natural fit” to serve as this year’s ESPYS host.
“Marcello is one of the most electric, young comedians today. His genuine enthusiasm for sports and his ties to New York City make him a natural fit to host this year’s ESPYS,” Lazarus said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with him to celebrate the best moments in sports and look forward to the fresh take he’ll bring to the show.”
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