Jennifer Lopez has opened up about the pain she felt when she split from Ben Affleck many years ago.
Now, Ben Affleck has had quite the experience when it comes to romance.
The actor and filmmaker has constantly been in and out of the headlines with his explosive love life.
I suppose that’s what happens when you’re Batman, right?
Let’s start from the beginning…
It all first began when Affleck began dating Gwyneth Paltrow.
The pair met at a dinner party thrown by the notorious Harvey Weinstein in 1997, and they started dating soon after Paltrow ended her engagement to Brad Pitt. Rebound of the century, right?
But, their relationship came to an end a couple of years later.
They apparently remain firm friends today, with Paltrow revealing in a 2015 interview with Howard Stern that she “likes him” and is “still friends with him.”
Shortly after things ended with Paltrow, Affleck struck up another high-profile romance…
This time with the actress and singer, Jennifer Lopez.
The pair were together for 2 years and were even set to marry.
But one week before their wedding date, the couple postponed their wedding “due to the excessive media attention.” And, in early 2004, Lopez confirmed to the media that she had called off the engagement.
But then, along came a different Jennifer.
Just 9 months after his very public breakup with Lopez, Affleck, and Jennifer Garner were seen out and about together at a Boston Red Sox World Series Game.
Affleck and Garner began dating in 2004 and just a year later they were married.
In 2005, the pair tied the knot in a private ceremony in Turks and Caicos.
The pair welcomed 3 children together during their relationship.
But sadly, after being together for over a decade, Affleck and Garner separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2017. Rumors of Affleck’s infidelity were flying but, to this day, he profusely denied being unfaithful.
Though he denied any claims of infidelity, Affleck did admit to heavy drinking habits.
“I drank relatively normally for a long time. What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems,” he explained to the New York Times.
“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” he continued.
“Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”
Affleck then dated Ana De Armas for a short while before calling it quits in January 2021.
And since then, Affleck has been dating someone that we all know very well.
Affleck and Jennifer Lopez then started dating again.
While the pair didn’t share much of their relationship, it seems they were absolutely smitten.
It’s safe to say that Affleck has had some pretty high-profile relationships.
And recently he has opened up about one of them…
In an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Affleck spoke with Howard Stern about his drinking habits during his relationship and divorce from Garner.
And what he had to say was eye-opening.
Speaking with Stern about his divorce from Garner, Affleck said: “Part of why I started drinking was because I was trapped,” E! Online reports.
Affleck explained that he and Garner’s stayed together for as long as they did for their 3 children.
He said that he felt he couldn’t leave because of his kids but wasn’t happy.
“And what I did was [I] drank a bottle of scotch and fell asleep on the couch, which turned out not to be the solution,” he explained.
But, while Affleck’s marriage to Garner didn’t work, he still has “love and respect” for her.
“We had a marriage that didn’t work,” he said. “This happens. She’s somebody I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn’t be married any longer.”
Affleck added that they completed their divorce “amicably” and the best they could.
“Did we have moments of tension? Did we have disagreements over custody? Was stuff difficult for us? Did we get angry?” he continued. “Yes, but fundamentally it was always underpinned with a respect.”
Affleck then went on to speak about how he knew he need help with his drinking addiction “when I felt as if it impacted” his children.
“The cure for addiction is suffering, you suffer enough that something inside you goes, ‘I’m done,'” he said. “I’m lucky because I hit that point before I lost the things that were most important. Not my career or money, it was my relationship with my kids.”
Affleck also added that he believed that if he were still with Garner, he would “probably still be drinking.”
Last year, news emerged that Affleck was back with Jennifer Lopez.
And they quickly took their relationship to the next level.
Almost twenty years on from when Affleck initially asked for her hand in marriage, the duo got engaged once again.
Back in February, Lopez opened up about her relationship with Affleck this time around to PEOPLE, she said: “We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience, we’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things.”
“It’s a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other,” Lopez continued. “We always did, but we have even more of an appreciation because we know that life can take you in different directions.”
Lopez and Affleck were also spotted house hunting before settling on a $55 million Bel-Air home…
It’s a whopping 20,000 sq ft. featuring 10 bedrooms and seventeen bathrooms, and of course, a pool.
Lopez shared the incredible news of her engagement in her newsletter, revealing her ring in the video, with the voiceover: “You’re perfect.”
Just days earlier, her sister Lynda took to Instagram to share a photo of her ring on her Story, congratulating the pair.
She later shared that the proposal was the most “romantic thing” ever.
And she did so by writing in the JLO Newsletter.
“Did you ever imagine your biggest dream could come true?” Lopez began in the newsletter, as per PEOPLE.
“Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed,” she continued writing.
“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.
“I was smiling so big and tears were coming down my face, feeling so incredibly happy and whole.
“It was nothing fancy at all, but it was the most romantic thing I could’ve ever imagined… just a quiet Saturday night at home, two people promising to always be there for each other,” she wrote.
And then she finished by saying that they are: “Two very lucky people. Who got a second chance at true love.”
And now, the loved-up pair have finally tied the knot…
According to TMZ, who obtained a marriage license with their names on it, the couple tied the knot on July 17.
In an email to her followers, Lopez wrote: “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”
She added: “Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive-through in Las Vegas at 12:30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive-through with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with.”
A source close to the pair added: ‘They did, indeed, get hitched and the license is a signal they are now man and wife.”
However, since fans have got a glimpse of their union online, they have been left shocked by a strange detail on their marriage license.
In their certificate from Clark County Clerk’s Office, which
got leaked, it seems the pair were married by Pastor Ryan Wolfe…
With their main witness being Kenosha Booth.
It also states that J-Lo “wishes to use the name Jennifer Affleck after marriage.”
You can check out the certificate for yourself here.
After 3 months of marriage, it was reported that the couple had some disagreements…
Apparently, Lopez had a few things she didn’t like about Affleck’s habits.
And they were continuously arguing over Affleck’s wardrobe.
“He’s a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy and now Jennifer is trying to tell him what he can and can’t wear,” an unknown source said.
One habit of Affleck’s that Lopez reportedly started hating was his smoking…
“She absolutely hates Ben’s cigarettes,” another insider claimed.
“He promised to give it up, but with all her nagging, he’s smoking more than ever.”
Another habit of Affleck that irritated Lopez was that he doesn’t clean up after himself at home.
“Ben doesn’t clean up after himself, which irritates the hell out of Jennifer,” the source added.
And lastly, Lopez even cleared out his prize motorbike collection!
An insider said: “She thinks they are unsafe, so she completely blindsided Ben.”
Since then, reports have been doing the rounds that things are starting to get messier in their relationship.
According to reports, the duo might be getting a little relationship advice from a totally unexpected source and there’s more to the tale than just that.
According to OK! Magazine, a source close to the couple said it all had to do with J-Lo’s career…
“She had him fooled for a while, but Ben’s realizing Jennifer is as career-driven as she ever was,” an insider said.
But that’s not all…
Sources further told Radar Online last month that Ben’s love of cigarettes has reportedly created issues between the couple.
“Jennifer hates smoking. You do not look like Jennifer Lopez if you don’t look after your body. She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t eat bad food and she certainly doesn’t smoke,” the source said.
“Ben has given up a lot of his vices over the years, but he just can’t get rid of the cigarettes. It’s his one guilty pleasure and something Jennifer might have to learn to live with,” further said.
And reality may have hit hard for the newlyweds, as they’ve gotten over the honeymoon phase of their marriage, as per the source.
“Ben doesn’t clean up after himself, which irritates the hell out of Jennifer,” said the source.
But what hit J-Lo more is that Ben asked his ex-wife Jennifer Garner for help with their marriage, “especially when it comes to the issue of their children, which the source said is the couples’ biggest source of contention.”
J-Lo has candidly spoken about why she took Affleck’s last name.
In an interview with Vogue, the star said that “people are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez.”
“We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem,” she added.
J-Lo previously said that she “will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together.”
According to PEOPLE, J-Lo laughed when asked whether she’d ever want Affleck, to take her last name.
And she didn’t shy away from saying it how it is…
“No! It’s not traditional. It doesn’t have any romance to it.
“It feels like it’s a power move, you know what I mean? I’m very much in control of my own life and destiny and feel empowered as a woman and as a person,” she said.
Lopez told Vogue that she “can understand that people have their feelings about” her name preference, “and that’s okay, too.”
“But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic,” she said. “It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl.”
But the singer has been criticized for her decision.
And even writer Jennifer Weiner labeled Lopez’s decision as “cringe-y.”
“A woman taking her husband’s last name feels to me like a submission,” Weiner wrote in an opinion piece published by The New York Times.
She added that it feels “dispiriting” how the singer decided to change her name.
“A gesture that doesn’t say ‘I belong with him’ so much as ‘I belong to him.’ And at this fraught moment for feminism in America, a woman like the former Jennifer Lopez deciding to change her name feels especially dispiriting,” Weiner wrote.
However, it seems J-Lo was not at all discouraged, and told Vogue that she’s “proud” of her marriage to Affleck.
“People are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez. But my legal name will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together. We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem,” she said.
J-Lo then went ahead to emphasize that regardless of whose name she’s taken, she still feels “empowered as a woman.”
“I’m very much in control of my own life and destiny and feel empowered as a woman and as a person.
“I can understand that people have their feelings about it, and that’s okay, too. But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic. It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl,” she added.
J-Lo has been further showing off her relationship…
She took to TikTok to share a video of her and Affleck cuddling.
“Guys I did it. I found the person that makes me the happiest I have ever been,” the voiceover says.
You can watch the video here.
However, just days later, the singer deleted all her Instagram photos and her profile had gone black…
And some fans think this has something to do with her marriage to Affleck.
“He never looked happy with her. I’m not surprised,” one wrote.
While another added: “She should stop getting married. Some people don’t do well after marriage.”
But it seems like others are convinced she’s got something else up her sleeve…
Such as a rebrand or an important announcement.
“She’s definitely about to announce something huge!!! It’s nothing to be worried about guys,” one fan insisted.
Since then, Lopez gave fans quite a surprise after making this huge announcement on social media.
Lopez revealed on her social media page that she will be dropping a new album in 2023.
The album is Lopez’s first studio album after 8 long years, after releasing A.K.A back in 2014.
The album follows the emotional and psychological journey she has taken over the past 2 decades
The album is titled This Is Me… Now.
She dropped the teaser trailer on all her social media pages and used her This Is Me… Then artwork to transform into her current self.
In the teaser clip, she said: “This is me then, this is me now,” whilst transitioning into her present self.
Since the trailer dropped, fans were sent into a frenzy and rushed to the comment section to share their thoughts.
One commented: “Love you soooo much.”
Another added: “YASSSS JEN!!!!”
While a third chimed: “THIS IS SO MAGICAL OMG.”
You can see her post here.
And now, Lopez has opened up about her previous split from Affleck in a new interview with Apple Music 1.
“It was so painful after we broke up,” Lopez explained.
“Once we called off that wedding 20 years ago, it was the biggest heartbreak of my life.
“I honestly felt like I was going to die,” she admitted.
“It sent me on a spiral for the next 18 years where I just couldn’t get it right.
“But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending. It has the most ‘would never happen in Hollywood’ ending,” Lopez explained.
“We captured me at this moment in time when I was reunited with the love of my life and we decided we were going to be together forever.
“The whole message of the album is, ‘This love exists. This is a real love,’” she added.
We can’t wait to listen!