Article US du 14 Avril 2003

Alias's Jennifer Garner and Husband Scott Foley Agree to Separate

Jennifer Garner hasn't been a bachelorette for several years, but that didn't stop her from partying like one on March 22. The Alias superspy treated 20 of her friends, including childhood pal and bride-to-be Katie Gage, to a daylong fete that included poolside brunch at the W hotel in L.A., group pedicures and grooving at the Ivar nightclub. The next day Garner turned up as a presenter at the Oscars—with Gage, not husband Scott Foley, as her date. "Scott was at home with the dogs," her spokeswoman said at the time, "chilling out."

Now it seems as if the chill was actually between Garner and Foley, both 30. On April 1 the couple, who met in 1998 on the set of the WB drama Felicity—"I was so glad that he wás tall and handsome," Garner told PEOPLE in February—announced their separation after 2½ years of marriage. "It's so sad," says a Garner associate. "You think, 'When did it all go wrong?' "

One source close to the couple offers a theory: "Everybody wondered if he minded being in her shadow." In February Garner's sizzling career got a big boost with her role opposite Ben Affleck in Daredevil (she's now slated to star in her own spinoff). At the same time, Foley endured the disappointing ratings of his NBC sitcom A.U.S.A. But, the same source also notes, "he seemed supportive and they both looked happy." The cause remains a mystery—except, of course, to TV's hottest spy.