Jennifer Garner was asked to stop taking her kids to soccer practice because of her fame.

The 54-year-old actress admitted the attention she and her then-husband Ben Affleck - with whom she has Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and 14-year-old Samuel - received when out in public as overwhelming and they were followed by so many paparazzi photographers, it had a major impact on their family life.

Speaking to Evan Ross Katz on his Shut Up Evan podcast, she said: "If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would go through the red behind me. They would drive up onto people's lawns, even on a hillside.

"We were trying to have our little one play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars coming. So it wasn't just about us. It was just an industry that had gotten out of control.

"If you show up and you're trying to get into the paediatrician and you have a sick kid on your shoulder and you're scared and you can't get into the door because you're blocked by photographers, there's something wrong with that, and the kids are paying the price."

The Five-Star Weekend actress didn't feel she was in a position to complain but insisted what was going on around her was dangerous.

She said: "It felt like, 'Poor little me, my poor little kids who have everything in the world,' but it was a danger to everyone around us."

After so many years in the spotlight, Jennifer has an "odd" relationship with some of the photographers who have followed her for years, with her even going to one for help after they developed a mutual "respect" for one another.

She explained: "I have a very interesting relationship with my main guy.

"I mean, I've done anything to ask him to leave. And at the same time, we have an odd respect for each other. I don't know... we've had some really real life moments together.

"I was followed by someone who, for whatever reason, I thought was going to hurt me, and I ran to him because I knew him and trusted him, and I knew that he and I would be okay.

"Like, there's kind of a Stockholm syndrome thing.

"And at the same time, I've called the cops on him a million times and been like, 'Can you please just give me a walk around the block with my kids and my dog?' "