Ben Affleck Won $1 Million On Who Wants To Be A Millionaire And Gave It All To Charity
Exactly one year after his best friend Matt Damon won $1 million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Ben Affleck did the same thing. On the July 30 episode of the ABC game show, Affleck and his partner Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding correctly answered the $1 million final question and took the top prize, which will go entirely to Affleck's Eastern Congo Initiative, a nonprofit he co-founded in 2009 to support communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo affected by conflict. The winning question was not what either of them expected. "You must be kidding me," Affleck said when host Jimmy Kimmel read it aloud. The pair had to identify which turkey names had not been officially pardoned by a US president in the annual Thanksgiving tradition — choosing between Peanut Butter & Jelly, Tater & Tot, Mac & Cheese, and Spaghetti & Meatball. With their final lifeline, they called on Kimmel, who guessed Spaghetti & Meatball. After a long suspenseful pause, Spaghetti & Meatball was confirmed correct. Confetti rained down. Affleck and Ding jumped and hugged.
The whole episode had the feel of a sequel written by fate. On July 30 last year, Damon and Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings had won the same $1 million prize on the same show, also for charity. Kimmel had openly teased Ding about being paired with "the other Good Will Hunting star," noting that Jennings had competed with "the accursed Matt Damon" the year before. Affleck and Ding are now the fifth celebrity pair to win the million-dollar jackpot since Kimmel took over the show in 2020. "He's very smart, that Ben Affleck," Kimmel told Variety before the episode aired. He was not wrong.
