The Gone Girl star, 42, was appearing on ancestry tracing programme ‘Finding Your Roots’ - in the hope he would track down some interesting facts about his forefathers.
After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for "Finding Your Roots," it was discovered that one of my distant relatives... > >
Posted by [Ben Affleck](https://www.facebook.com/benaffleck) on [Tuesday, April 21, 2015](https://www.facebook.com/benaffleck/posts/849207928486969)
But what he discovered was that six generations ago, his relative Benjamin Cole owned slaves in the U.S. state of Georgia - something which rattled the actor.
In an attempt to cover up the discovery, Affleck asked the show to omit this particular relative from their programme, though he was rumbled when private emails were leaked to the public.
'I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.’
Taking to his Facebook page on Wednesday, Affleck attempted to defend his decision.
‘I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.’
He continued: ‘Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable.’
‘The assumption is that they will never be dishonest but they will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family.’
Affleck, who is married to actress Jennifer Garner, said he now regretted his decision to leave the slavery issue out of the programme, but added:
‘We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery.’