If you are a fan of both Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, this past week’s news of their divorce has likely rattled your faith in true love. Popularly known as ‘Bennifer’ — a portmanteau of their first names — the superstar couple has been the cynosure of all eyes for a long time. But now, the relationship timeline of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck has apparently come to an end as JLo, as Lopez is famously known, files for divorce.
The love story of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck is like the script of a romantic movie. The two first met way back in 2002 on a movie set and fell in love. JLo had already become a superstar in music and a renowned name in fashion, especially after she wore the green Versace silk chiffon dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards which made her the most-searched person in Google’s history and gave birth to Google Images.
Ben Affleck was, at the time, one of Hollywood’s most attractive leading men with hits such as Good Will Hunting (1997), Armageddon (1998), Reindeer Games (2000) and Pearl Harbor (2001) to his credit.
They fell in love and made headlines around the world with their appearances. They were to get married within a year of their first meeting, but officially split months later and moved on. Over the next 20 years, they entered new relationships and went on to become legends in their respective fields. And then one day, they came back together again, fell in love once more with each other, and, finally, got married.
Unfortunately, as some of their heartbroken fans think following the news of their impending divorce, theirs was a love story destined never to have a happy ending.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck first met on the set of the American romantic crime comedy film Gigli. The film was released in 2003 and was a disaster at the box office despite all the buzz around it due to Lopez and Affleck’s relationship.
At the time of filming Gigli, JLo was still married to dancer Cris Judd, who was her second husband. She filed for divorce from Judd in June 2002, which was finalised in 2003.
On 26 September, Lopez released her smash hit song Jenny from the Block. Its incredibly famous music video features Ben Affleck with Jennifer. Their steamy moments in the music video cemented their ‘lovebirds’ status.
Affleck and Lopez got engaged in November. The music icon was given a 6.1-carat pink diamond from Harry Winston by Affleck which was reportedly worth around USD 2.5 million.
Early this year, Lopez proudly displayed the diamond ring to fans. She also played the role of the dead wife of Affleck’s character in Jersey Girl. The movie was expected to release later in 2003 but eventually hit the screens in 2004. Like their first film together, this, too, was a box office bomb.
They were expected to get married in September, but two days before the wedding the couple announced they were postponing it due to “excessive media attention.”
“When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realized that something was awry,” they said in their statement.
No future date was given for their wedding.
The first pause in the relationship timeline of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck came on 22 January when they officially ended their engagement.
“I am confirming the report that Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck,” a statement by JLo’s spokesperson stated at the time, according to MTV. “At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy.”
Around five months later, Lopez married singer-songwriter and longtime friend Marc Anthony. They had twins, daughter Emme Muñiz and son Max Muñiz, in 2008 and separated in 2014.
The year when she separated from Anthony, JLo reflected on the time when she ended her relationship with Affleck in her book True Love.
“Ben and I split up at the moment when I thought we were committing to each other forever, it was my first real heartbreak, it felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest,” she wrote, according to Page Six.
“I sought out comfort in another person, tried to find someone who could make me feel loved and wanted in my loneliest hour. … Marc came back into my life three days after I should have been at the altar saying ‘I do’ to another man,” she wrote.
On 29 June, almost a year after Jennifer Lopez married Marc Anthony, Ben Affleck started a long relationship timeline by marrying Jennifer Garner.
Over the next 13 years till their divorce in 2018, they emerged as a Hollywood power couple and were blessed with three children: daughters Violet and Seraphina Affleck, and son Samuel Affleck.
Ben Affleck restarted his relationship with Jennifer Lopez in April when Us Weekly spotted him travelling in a white SUV supposedly to visit Lopez.
Within two weeks, in May, it was confirmed that Affleck and Lopez had indeed started seeing each other again and were spotted holidaying in Big Sky, Montana. At that time, Affleck had recently split from Ana de Armas, while Lopez had split from Alex Rodriguez.
Over the next few months, Affleck and Lopez were spotted together at several public places, including Miami, a dinner date in West Hollywood, JLo’s sister’s birthday in Malibu, and the 4th of July celebrations at Hamptons with their respective children.
They even went house-hunting in the Holmby Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles. For Lopez’s 52nd birthday, Bennifer went to Nice in France. They were seen kissing and snuggling on a yacht off the coast of Monaco.
The first time that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck posed on the red carpet together was in August 2003 at the premiere of Gigli. Now, 18 years later, they posed on the red carpet once more at the Venice International Film Festival premiere of Affleck’s movie The Last Duel. They posed on the red carpet once more in October at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, New York, for the premiere of the same movie.
During this period, the children of both Affleck and Lopez were seen with them on several occasions, including family movie outings and dinners. The couple were also seen at a Los Angeles Lakers game in December.
Jennifer Lopez announced in a personal fan newsletter that she was engaged to Ben Affleck. She showed off her new engagement ring, which was an emerald-cut, pale green diamond. She also added a diamond ring emoji to her Twitter (now X) name at the time.
In a follow-up newsletter, she revealed that Affleck proposed the second time while she was taking a bubble bath.
“Did you ever imagine your biggest dream could come true?” she wrote, adding, “Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed. I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again, I was quite literally speechless and he said, ‘is that a yes?’ I said YES of course that’s a YES.”
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At midnight on 17 July, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez gave a new dimension to their love story by officially becoming husband and wife. They tied the knot in a surprise Las Vegas wedding in a small chapel. Lopez revealed in a newsletter that she had changed her last name to Affleck, and they were now Mr. And Mrs. Affleck.
“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love’. We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to,” Lopez wrote in her post.
“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with. Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things-and worth waiting for.”
Following the wedding, they flew to Paris for their honeymoon. Their children went with the couple, who went about the city of love, taking romantic park walks and going on intimate dates.
The couple exchanged wedding vows once more following their return from Paris. This time, they held the private ceremony at Affleck’s estate in Riceboro, Georgia, on 20 August. Matt Damon, Affleck’s close friend with whom he frequently collaborated on major projects, including a movie on the true story of Air Jordan, was present with his wife, Luciana Barroso.
Following the wedding, Lopez and Affleck embarked on a honeymoon to Italy. They visited Milan and then the picturesque Lake Como. They also shopped at luxury stores such as Cartier, Bottega Veneta and Valentino.
The couple arrived in style at the 65th Grammy Awards. Jennifer Lopez wore a Gucci navy and silver crystal-embellished gown with matching accessories. Ben Affleck was in an all-black-and-white combo of a classic suit, vest, shirt and tie.
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At the premiere of the film The Mother in May, Jennifer Lopez spoke to Access Hollywood on the red carpet.
“This whole entire year has been so special, since getting married last year and having a lot of firsts this year together so, it’s been beautiful,” she said, reflecting on the time and raising their children together.
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Citing sources, various media reports also indicate that their relationship has grown stronger and are very supportive of each other. She also posted a video wishing Affleck on his birthday on 23 August.
This Is Me… Now is the ninth studio album by Jennifer Lopez. One of the most anticipated music releases of the year, the album was received positively for its theme and Lopez’s vocals. Alongside the album, Lopez also released an accompanying musical film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story. Affleck is among the ensemble cast of the movie, which was directed by Dave Meyers.
The focus of the movie and the album is the love story of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. In fact, Lopez had in November 2022 told Zane Lowe for Apple Music how Affleck inspired her to record This Is Me… Now as well as her third studio album This Is Me… Then.
“That album, This Is Me … Then, really captured a moment in time where I fell in love with the love of my life. It’s all just right there on the record and I didn’t even realize what was happening or what I was doing…I didn’t even realize that I was writing some of our story that would happen, which was sick. … I didn’t even realize it was kind of prophetic in a way,” she said.
“When he came back into my life, again the same thing happened where I felt so inspired and so overtaken with emotion that it was just pouring out of me,” she added.
On 8 February, about a week before its release, Lopez said at a press conference that Affleck once again inspired her to go ahead with the musical drama version of the album.
“I was like, ‘I don’t write, I don’t do this.’ He was like, ‘You do, you write, you direct, you produce, you choreograph, you do all the things. Start stepping into that, start owning a little bit of who you are,’ ” she said.
The positive reception of both the album and the movie helped raise the net worth of Jennifer Lopez by quite a few million dollars.
Lopez and Affleck were seen holding hands in public on 30 March in New York City. For whatever reason, they were not seen together for 47 days — an unusually long time for celebrities — leading to speculations about a rift in their marital life.
However, they made a public appearance on 16 May at a school play to support their children. Three days later, as reports of their separation gained momentum and Affleck was seen without his wedding ring, they were seen attending a movie event in Los Angeles with Jennifer Garner and their children.
On 20 July, four days ahead of her birthday, Lopez threw a Bridgerton-theme bash in the Hamptons with friends and family, but Affleck wasn’t in attendance. Speculations around their separation strengthened, especially since Affleck was reportedly living in a rented property in Los Angeles alone at the time.
Earlier in August, Jennifer Lopez went house hunting as Ben Affleck bought an estate for himself in Los Angeles. Reports swirl that they hadn’t seen each other for weeks.
Eventually, on the two-year anniversary of their Georgia wedding on 20 August, Lopez filed for divorce in a Los Angeles County Superior Court. The listed date of separation on the divorce application was reportedly 26 April 2024, indicating that media speculations were right.
“She tried really hard to make things work, and is heartbroken,” a source told PEOPLE of Lopez. “The kids are a top priority, as they always have been.”
Once the divorce is finalised, it would mark the official end of the two-decade-long relationship timeline of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. Of course, fans would still be hoping that they find a way to continue what has been one of the best love stories in Hollywood.
This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Kuala Lumpur.
(Main and featured images: Filippo Monteforte/AFP)
The first time Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez got engaged was in 2002. But they could not get married at the time and called it quits.
No, they don't have any children together. But Ben Affleck is a father to three children with ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, and Jennifer Lopez is a mother to twins with ex-husband, Marc Anthony.
Martin Brest's romantic film 'Gigli' (2003) and Kevin Smith's comedy 'Jersey Girl' (2004) are the only two films starring both Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
The combined net worth of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck is around USD 640 million. Jennifer is the richer of the two, with a net worth of at least USD 400 million.
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare ..Read More
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