It has been nearly three years since Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck shockingly announced their split after ten years of marriage and having three kids together. In what was seemingly a picture-perfect relationship – filled with a routine of trips to the farmer’s market, working out, getting coffee, and dropping the kids off at school – things eventually fell apart, and it forced Garner to walk away from what she calls “a real marriage” and the love of her life.

Affleck and Garner married on a beach in Turks & Caicos back in 2005, with her Alias co-star Victor Garber officiating a ceremony that only had his partner Rainer in attendance. Garner says she ran down the beach towards Affleck because she was marrying him, not a big fat movie star.

Garner says if she had to do it all over again, she would go back and remake that same decision, even though she now knows how it all ends. She says Affleck is the most brilliant person in the room, the most charismatic, and the most generous, but he is complicated.

Ultimately, Garner says that she and Affleck are the only two people that know the truth about their relationship, and they had to help each other get through the divorce.

Affleck has since moved on to a relationship with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus.

As for Garner, it is now time for her to move forward. She knows that it isn’t Affleck’s job to make her happy, and now that she has time for herself, she refuses to take umbrage or be the ashes (a reference to Affleck’s phoenix rising back tattoo). And if these 20 images are any indication of the steps forward Garner has made, Affleck might now be reconsidering the end of their marriage.

20. Oscar Party

A viral meme featuring Jennifer Garner in the audience of the 90th Academy Awards may have been the talk of the internet for a few days, but there is no denying how stunning she looked during the star-studded evening.

Seeing the actress in her gorgeous blue gown was a reminder to fans that the Garner renaissance is upon us, thanks to her recent standout performance in Love, Simon and her upcoming return to television in HBO’s Camping (from creators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner). Garner hasn’t been on television since she said goodbye in 2006 to playing Agent Sydney Bristow on ABC’s Alias.

Mix all of that with her fun and silly Instagram presence, fans should have no doubt that the 45-year-old is back and living her best life.

19. Modern Family

More than a year after they announced their split, in the summer of 2016, Affleck and Garner were still living on the same property (he was in the guest house), and their divorce proceedings had seemingly come to a standstill. Garner said on the Today Show that she and Affleck make up a modern family, and while he shot The Justice League, she took the kids to be with him so that they could be part of that experience.

While in London for Affleck’s movie shoot, she and the kids got to spend some time with him while he wasn’t hard at work, and Garner says she wants her kids to know that everything is ok.

The former couple also went to Montana later that year to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together that year along with their children.

18. Naturally Sweet And Completely Addicting

Garner has started to flood her Instagram with recipes for healthy snacks and pics and videos of her in her backyard garden. She has shared with her fans that blue corn chips are her nemesis, and kale chips and beet chips are her friends.

She says that nothing is better than a tortilla trip, but the recipe she shared with fans for beet chips comes pretty close because it satisfies the craving of the crunch. Garner also called them “naturally sweet and completely addicting.”

The Juno star also went to her garden once to taste some peppers, but they ended up being so hot she was forced to drown her mouth with water while saying “regret, regret, regret.” She captioned that video with “not as cool as I thought I was.”

17. A New Action Thriller

Garner’s new film Peppermint is an action-thriller that is scheduled for release this September, and she plays a mother who wakes up from a coma after her husband and daughter die from a brutal attack on the family.

When the system fails her and keeps the murderers from justice, she begins to transform herself from housewife to urban guerrilla and attempts to deliver her brand of justice.

Peppermint also stars John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba, John Gallagher Jr., Annie Ilonzeh, Pell James, and Richard Cabral.

It will be the latest in STXfilms female-led releases which include The Edge of Seventeen, Molly’s Game, the two Bad Moms flicks, Shailene Woodley’s sailing drama Adrift, and the new Amy Schumer comedy I Feel Pretty.

16. Baby2Baby

Garner joined honoree Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, and J.J. Abrams at the Baby2Baby November fundraiser for families affected by poverty and natural disasters. The gala raised nearly $4 million to help provide basic essentials for the victims of disasters in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

The mother of three children – Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, Sam, 4 –, Garner is an activist for a variety of children and family charities, and in 2009 became the artist ambassador for Save the Children to promote literacy, nutrition, and early childhood education efforts.

In 2013, she took Violet to her first public event at a Save the Children gala in New York because she wanted her daughter to see the passionate commitment some people have to making the world a better place.

15. She Loves Lin-Manuel

Garner has made it crystal clear that she has a love for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton that is so intense it makes her cry. She once decided to share on Instagram a throwback Thursday video of herself yelling into the phone after a dose of dental anesthesia, laughing gas, and Hamilton tunes.

In the clip that tickled the internet’s fancy, she starts to cry as she tells someone about the Broadway show that she saw at the Rodgers & Hammerstein Theater in November 2015. The drugged Garner tells her friend how beautiful the music is and explains how she told her dentist’s staff that they need to see it.

Garner has had the chance to get to know Miranda, and she says it’s fun to know someone who has turned the world on its head with their creative genius. She also called him inspiring because the drive to do the right thing influences all of his decisions.

14. A Strong Front

Since her split from Affleck, Garner has put up a strong front, but that doesn’t mean things have been easy for her. She says that on the day that her ex started his first film post-breakup, it was hard for her because she wasn’t a part of it. Garner added that she got the kids to school and then just went home and went to bed.

The 13 Going On 30 star says that she understood that people wanted an easy resolution to her and Affleck’s split. She admitted to wanting to see something saying that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were getting back together after their 2005 breakup.

But, a reconciliation wasn’t going to happen for them or for her, and she leaned on her family and friends for support and went back to the essentials for solace.

13. Keeping It Casual

In addition to eating healthy, Garner works out religiously to keep that amazing figure. She doesn’t mind the photographs of herself in her workout gear, which helps make her the definition of California casual. Her relaxed, unpretentious style has made her one of the most popular and respected mothers in America who can still draw at the box office.

Fans often see her with no makeup, but she still has her flawless skin and big smile. And this all comes after living through a wife’s worst nightmare of rumors that Affleck cheated with the nanny before their split and moved on with a new girlfriend before the divorce was final.

Garner says that when she can’t sleep, she turns to the movies of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to help her laugh and switch her brain off.

12. Chicken Lady

Garner seems to suddenly have a knack for immortalizing each and every one of her quirks on Instagram. She owns a chicken named Regina George (a nod to Mean Girls) who she loves to walk around her neighborhood. And in a series of posts she calls #TuTuTuesdays, Garner narrates videos of her favorite ballerinas with her “instastalking knowledge.”

She captioned the above pic by writing that there should be a chicken lady day, and her life continues to get more exciting all the time. The Dallas Buyers Club star also wrote that Regina loves long walks, dehydrated bugs, and kale. However, she hates carbs. She also added the hashtag #ithinkshehasaburnbook.

It looks like Garner is the one having all the fun.

11. The Anti-Diva

Matthew McConaughey, Garner’s co-star in Dallas Buyers Club, says that Garner brings a simple humanity to everything she does, and it extends beyond her work on the screen. Many people don’t know that in addition her work with Save the Children, she made efforts to get a paparazzi law passed in California that would prevent the harassment of children.

Katie McGrath, J.J. Abrams’ wife and a Children’s Defense Fund board member, has known Garner for twenty years, since her days on Abrams’ first TV show Felicity. She says that Garner is unusual in Hollywood because of her service DNA. She isn’t in it for the photo opportunity and instead lives her values, and that is unusual in the community.

10. A Silver Lining

After going through such a drawn-out, painful split, a positive thing for fans is that they get to see more of Garner, who is determined to look forward and use the time that she used to put into her marriage into herself.

She is maintaining her lucrative career – complete with endorsements for Capital One and Neutrogena – and is the number one spokeswoman in the country according to the Nielsen ratings. This is probably due to the fact that Garner has an authentic, genuine quality and an approachability that her split from Affleck didn’t diminish.

Even though she is incredibly talented, Garner is also very warm and funny, but people need to know she is not all puppy dogs and ice cream. Instead, there is some real depth and weight to her.

9. The Nantucket Project

With live talks and short films, The Nantucket Project brings fresh ideas to audiences about the things that matter most in the world. Each fall, 500 visionaries and seekers descend on the island of Nantucket to discuss the boldest and most thought-provoking ideas of our time. Past speakers and presenters include Steve Wozniak, Deepak Chopra, Hope Solo, and Glenn Beck.

Garner said that she and Mark Shriver felt lucky to have the opportunity to keep the conversation about rural poverty going, and the different ways people are trying to answer the question “What really matters?” inspired them.

After the event, Garner said she would add Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber and Behold the Dreamers and Pilgrimage by Mark Shriver to her reading list.

8. The Sunset Of Her Marriage

Garner says that ‘nannygate” was the result of tabloid gossip, and it was all unsavory and a cliché. She made it clear in an interview with Vanity Fair that she and Affleck had been separated for months before she ever heard about the nanny. In truth, the nanny had nothing to do with their divorce, and she was simply not part of the equation.

For Garner, her marriage to Affleck was the real thing and she was in it, it wasn’t for the cameras. Garner’s parents have been married for over fifty years, and she says it is hard for her to face the fact that she has failed twice at something she believes so strongly in (Garner married Scandal star Scott Foley before Affleck).

7. There Is A Big Dating Pool Out There

The thought of dating again brings Garner some concern and worry, because she says she is a dinosaur. The 45-year-old doesn’t want men to text, she wants them to bring her flowers. But, men don’t even call anymore, so that makes her unsure of getting back into the dating game.

But, a fellow airline passenger thought it was at least worth a shot during a flight on Jet Blue. She said she was waiting for the bathroom when a man asked her if he could take her out for a cup of coffee. Her reaction was that she was floored and had to remind herself that things like that could happen.

She responded by saying,” No you may not take me for a cup of coffee, sir, but thanks for asking.”

6. Super Woman

Garner made a trip to the pumpkin farm so she could make her favorite pumpkin maple muffins. A native of West Virginia, the actress has been vocal about how important her upbringing is to her as the middle-daughter of a middle-class family.

Her mom was an English teacher and her dad a chemical engineer, and they raised her in a household where vanity wasn’t celebrated because it was not at the top of their priority list. Garner also admits that her older sister Melissa was the star of the family and the prettiest person in the world.

Family is everything to Garner, and now that she is a mom and she has the opportunity to make her kids some home-baked treats, she doesn’t pass it up.

5. Don't Hate Him For Her

For Garner, her main focus is her children, and she is happy that everything is completely in line for them. She did lose her dream of dancing with her husband at their daughters’ weddings, but it’s ok because of the looks on her kids’ faces when Affleck walks through the door.

She says when you see your kids love someone so purely, then you are going to be friends with that person. Garner reveals that her eyes were wide open in the marriage, and there is no need to beat up on him. She doesn’t hate him, and people don’t need to hate him for her.

People do regrettable things and they feel shame, and shame equals pain. But, she is taking good care of herself.

4. She's Laughing

At the 2016 Golden Globes, when Ricky Gervais introduced Matt Damon as the only person who Affleck has never cheated on, Garner saw it and says that she laughed. She continues to have fun on social media and show off her silly, childlike side that most people haven’t seen in a long time.

She has attempted to make her own memes and posted crazy “happy birthday” videos for friends that have sent fans over the edge. For Reese Witherspoon, Garner made a video of herself dressed in a marching band uniform and playing the saxophone to honor her friend’s day of birth. It is so weird and impressive that it’s hard to believe she could ever do anything that endearing again.

3. Illumination

“My dress has hair and I don’t care,” said Garner about her fashion choice for last year’s fifth annual Illumination Gala at the American Museum of Natural History. In addition to Garner, the Save the Children benefit drew celebrities like Olivia Wilde, Dakota Fanning, and Jill and Joe Biden.

Fresh off her trip to Kentucky where she visited schools where Save the Children is involved, Garner said that every child has an inner light – no matter if they grow up in poverty, or a refugee camp, or in a privileged home. But, the light needs nourishment and love, and it needs to be fed so it can grow, and the kids can become the people they are meant to be.

2. Mocking The Tattoo

Even though she is known as a nice celebrity in Hollywood, she couldn’t help herself when it came to commenting on Affleck’s notorious back tattoo. Just six months after Affleck and Garner called it quits, cameras on the set of his movie Live By Night caught the shockingly elaborate ink on his back of a colorful phoenix rising from the ashes.

During an interview, Garner made fun of it by saying that in her hometown the reaction would be “bless his heart.”

Affleck initially claimed that the tattoo was fake and only there for a movie role, but more than two years later, photographers captured him shirtless once again, and the ink was still there. The internet took notice, and once again gave Affleck hell for the body art, but he tweeted back saying, “I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos."

1. Phoenix Rising

After five seasons of playing a CIA agent on Alias, the show that made her famous, Garner transitioned to a film career and a private life of being a wife and a mom. She had hits like 13 Going On 30 and Juno, but after nearly a decade of starring movies, she stayed quiet and laid low when the news of her split hit the tabloids in 2015.

Garber, the man who played her father on Alias, says that Garner is finally coming out of the shadows and finding her light, not just as a woman, but also as an artist. He says her strength and fortitude has changed her from someone who wanted to take care of everybody to someone who realized that to do that, she must take care of herself.