Ben Affleck comes clean on slave ancestry found on PBS Finding My Roots

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Ben Affleck has revealed name of the slave-owning ancestor which he got PBS to cut from Finding My Roots
He says his Freedom Rider mother Chris Anne was descended from Benjamin Cole, a Georgia slave-owner 'about six generations' ago
Oscar winner apologized last night for having PBS show cut revelation of his slave-owning roots, which was first revealed last week by Daily Mail Online
'I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed,' he wrote on Facebook
PBS has launched an internal investigation into whether or not Finding Your Roots violated their editorial standards and its host's future is in doubt

By Daniel Bates For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:04 EST, 22 April 2015 | Updated: 15:48 EST, 22 April 2015

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Ben Affleck today finally admitted the name of the slave ancestor he had censored from his past.

The Oscar-winning actor posted on social media that a 'Benjamin Cole' of Georgia, an ancestor on his mother's side, was the relative dropped from the PBS show about his family history.

The admission came the day after he apologized for lobbying for the removal of the truth about his family past from Finding Your Roots.

Writing on his personal account he said: 'Lots of people have been asking who the guy was. His name was Benjamin Cole - lived in Georgia on my Mom's side about six generations back.'

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Ben Affleck has apologized after he demanded information about a slave-owning relative be withheld from a PBS show about his ancestry

Admission: How Ben Affleck finally came clean

Affleck took to Facebook to issue his apology

Close: Ben Affleck and his former Freedom Rider mother Chris Anne, seen last October in Los Angeles

His mother, Chris Anne, had featured in the show, not because her ancestor benefited from indenture, but because she had been a Freedom Rider.

After appearing on Finding Your Roots and learning one of his ancestors was a slave owner, Affleck pushed the network to leave that information out of the program it was first revealed by DailyMail Online, a request the producers ultimately agreed to.

However, the admission suggests Affleck may have more than one slave-owning ancestor. Another was named today by The Sun as James McGuire, who kept eight slaves on his farm in what is now Trenton in New Jersey in the 1840s.

The affair has severely embarrassed the actor, a high-profile campaigner for liberal causes, who runs a charity for Africa.

It has also plunged PBS into crisis, and according to a prominent commentator, 'diminished' Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr, the host of the show, who is a Harvard academic.

Last night the actor apologized for asking producers to leave out the name in a post on Facebook, while also explaining his reasons for his decision.

'After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for Finding Your Roots, it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was an owner of slaves,' wrote Affleck.

'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.'

Affleck went on to say he lobbied for that information to be withheld after filming the episode.

'It's important to remember that this isn't a news program. Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable,' he explained.

'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.'

He then added; 'I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story. 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. It is an examination well worth continuing.'

Spotlight: The future of Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr as the host of the show is in the balance after PBS launched an investigation into whether its editorial code was breached.

Ben Affleck learns more about mom in Finding Your Roots trailer

US genealogist Debra Fleming is said to have helped trace Affleck's family tree back to McGuire, a relative of his father Timothy.

Ms Fleming told the Sun: 'There are lots of farmers in the family. Slavery didn't end in New Jersey until 1846.'

Affleck is just one of the many celebrities once again under fire after WikiLeaks sorted all the hacked Sony emails into a system that makes them easier for the public to search.

PBS meanwhile is conducting an internal investigation to determine if this omission violated the network's editorial standards.

They have yet to release a statement on their findings or to make clear when they will be reported, and whether they will quiz Affleck.

However, the affair has also called into question the future of the show's host, Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr.

BEN AFFLECK'S FACEBOOK APOLOGY

After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for 'Finding Your Roots,' it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was an owner of slaves.

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.

Skip decided what went into the show. I lobbied him the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use. This is the collaborative creative process. Skip agreed with me on the slave owner but made other choices I disagreed with. In the end, it's his show and I knew that going in. I'm proud to be his friend and proud to have participated.

It's important to remember that this isn't a news program. 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.

I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story. 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. It is an examination well worth continuing. I am glad that my story, however indirectly, will contribute to that discussion. While I don't like that the guy is an ancestor, I am happy that aspect of our country's history is being talked about.

Ben Affleck

Until now he had been a Harvard University academic best known for the 'beer summit' organized by President Obama when a policeman tried to arrest him because of a 911 call about men breaking and entering a home - which was in fact Prof Gates' own home.

The arrest became the center of a debate on racial profiling, and the African-American academic and the policeman were invited to the White House to discuss the arrest and its fallout over a beer.

However today he was described as 'diminished' in the New York Times by Frank Bruni, its columnist, as 'diminished' by the affair which 'exposed Gates, a trusted authority on the African-American experience, to accusations that he'd sold out'.

PBS declined today to offer any guarantees that he would remain host of the show. On Friday it issued a statement on his behalf but today said it was not responsible for his public statements.

The publicly-funded broadcaster was severely criticized by its ombudsman for its handling of Affleck and Daily Mail Online's revelations.

Michael Getler, the ombudsman, said the channel 'took a beating'.

'On the broader points, it seems to me that any serious program about genealogy, especially dealing with celebrities, cannot leave out a slave-owning ancestor,' he said.

'...Gates, aside from the decision he made – and it looks to me like a bad one – also, in my opinion, violated the well-known "no surprises doctrine" for public affairs programming and many other things by not informing PBS about these demands by Affleck'.

He added: 'As for PBS, they just struck me as asleep at the switch when this broke. It was pretty apparent from the leaked emails what had happened and to put out a statement that said essentially nothing and very quickly looked pathetic, as if they were hiding something.'

PBS said it had no comment to make on the ombudsman's words.