Jennifer Lopez files for divorce from Ben Affleck after 2 years of marriage

Los Angeles: Hollywood icon Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck, ending a relationship that began more than 20 years ago and spanned two engagements and two weddings. The divorce petition was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, with TMZ first breaking the news. Lopez listed April 26, 2024, as the date of separation and did not mention a prenuptial agreement.

Lopez and Affleck, famously dubbed “Bennifer,” initially met, fell in love, and got engaged in the early 2000s. They starred together in the films “Gigli” (2003) and “Jersey Girl” (2004) before splitting up, partly due to the intense media scrutiny.

In a surprising turn, they reunited two decades later, marrying twice in 2022. “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” wrote Lopez, announcing their first, quickie Las Vegas wedding that July, and signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.

“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,” she wrote in her newsletter.

Their first wedding took place in Las Vegas at A Little White Wedding Chapel, where they exchanged vows just after midnight. Lopez described it as “the best night of their lives.” They followed this with a larger ceremony at Affleck’s home in Georgia, attended by friends and family.

Both Affleck, 52, and Lopez, 55, had previous marriages before their time together. Affleck was married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018 and shares three children with her. Lopez had three previous marriages: to Ojani Noa (1997-1998), Cris Judd (2001-2003), and Marc Anthony (2004-2014), with whom she has 14-year-old twins. Lopez was also engaged to former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, but they broke up in 2021.

Throughout their relationship, Lopez was more open about their ups and downs. She acknowledged earlier this year that the high-profile nature of her relationships often led her to be more self-critical. “Oh yeah. 100%. It’s made me doubt myself and really feel bad about myself at times. Made me feel like I wanted to quit at times. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing where you learn how to navigate it,” she told The Associated Press. “You take the things that could be constructive about that and use it, and the rest you kind of just throw away as kind of like haterations or, you know, other things like that and just be like, ‘Whatever. I know who I am, I know what I want to do.’ ”

Affleck has praised her resilience, noting that Hollywood struggled to fully appreciate her diverse talents. “I think she’s in her prime,” Affleck said then. “She’s doing extraordinary work in large measure because she’s taking that step to take responsibility for what she’s doing rather than say, ‘This is what I’m being offered.’ ”

Lopez is set to appear in the upcoming film “Unstoppable,” produced under Affleck and Matt Damon's Artists Equity banner. Earlier this year, she starred in the Netflix movie “Atlas.” However, she recently cancelled her 2024 North American tour, citing heartbreak and a need to let fans down, despite the tour being her first in five years and in support of her new solo album. “Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” organisers said in a statement.

The tour was to be her first in five years, in support of her first solo album in a decade, “This Is Me.... Now” and its companion film. a fictionalised look at her long love life, and a documentary.

“When I was a girl they’d ask me what I’d be. A woman in love is what I grew up wantin’ to be,” Lopez sang on the title track.

The album, she said, was inspired by her rekindled relationship with Affleck. But the film was more "about your journey as a person, it’s about one person’s journey and what it takes to get from heartbreak back to love. Or a hopeless romantic’s journey in their search for love." In the movie, she played a character called The Artist who, similarly, had decided as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up: “in love.”

But the road was rocky. In an early scene, The Artist is on the back of a motorcycle, riding across a beach, with a hunky man, face shielded. Then the motorcycle crashes.

“Not all love stories have a happy ending,” she says.

Agencies