LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a two-decade relationship, two engagements, two weddings and countless headlines, Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.
Tuesday's filing in Los Angeles Superior Court apparently ended a star pairing – or not less than its second installment – that beamed from the best heights of popular culture and graced countless tabloid covers. They became referred to as “Bennifer” even before such power couple knockoffs were ubiquitous.
The filing was first reported on the web site TMZ. TMZ said Lopez had given a separation date of April 26, 2024. She added that she didn’t mention a prenuptial agreement.
After meeting, falling in love and getting engaged within the early 2000s – and starring together within the infamous movies “Gigli” in 2003 and “Jersey Girl” in 2004 – the couple parted ways, partly blaming public pressure for the split.
But to the delight of many and maybe the skepticism of others, they reunited twenty years later and married in 2022 – twice.
“Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And as it turns out, love is patient. Twenty years of patience,” Lopez wrote when she announced her first flash wedding in Las Vegas in July, registering as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
“Stay here long enough and you might have the most beautiful moment of your life driving through Las Vegas at 12:30 a.m. in the Tunnel of Love with your children, who you will be with forever,” she wrote in her newsletter.
The couple flew to Las Vegas, stood according to 4 other couples for marriage licenses and were married just after midnight at A Little White Wedding Chapel, where Lopez said a Bluetooth speaker played their temporary walk down the aisle. She called it essentially the most beautiful night of the couple's lives.
A month later, they celebrated a far more lavish wedding at Affleck's home in Georgia, in front of family and friends. The ceremony took place on August 20, which As Variety noted, it was exactly two years before she filed divorce papers this week.
Both were previously married. Affleck, 51, married Jennifer Garner in 2005, with whom he has three children. They divorced in 2018.
Lopez, 54, has been married 3 times before. She was briefly married to Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998 and to Cris Judd from 2001 to 2003. She and singer Marc Anthony were married for a decade, marrying in 2004, and have 14-year-old twins. She has been dating former baseball player Alex Rodriguez since 2017, however the couple called off their engagement in 2021.
Throughout all of it, it was Lopez who described her and Affleck's journey most clearly. When asked earlier this 12 months if she was harder on herself because their relationships attracted a lot attention, Lopez agreed.
“Oh yeah. 100%. It made me doubt myself and feel really bad at times. Sometimes I felt like I wanted to give up. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing to learn to cope,” she says. told the Associated Press. “You take the things that could be constructive and use them, and the rest you just throw away as some kind of hate or, well, other things like that, and just think, 'Whatever. I know who I am, I know what I want to do.'”
Affleck himself expressed his admiration for her self-control, He told AP last 12 months that he agreed with the commentary that Hollywood was unsure tips on how to capitalize on her versatile talent.
“I think she's at her best,” Affleck said on the time. “She's doing an extraordinary job, especially because she's taking the step of taking responsibility for what she's doing rather than saying, 'This is what's being offered to me.'”
Lopez stars within the upcoming film “Unstoppable,” directed by Affleck and Matt Damon at Artists Equity.
In May, she starred within the Netflix film Atlas. At the tip of the month, she suddenly canceled her 2024 North American tour, saying she was “heartbroken and devastated” to disappoint her fans, however the move was mandatory. “Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” organizers said in an announcement.
The tour was to be her first in five years and was to support her first solo album in a decade, This Is Me… Now, and its accompanying film, a fictionalized take a look at her long love life and a documentary.
“When I was a girl, they asked me what I wanted to be. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a woman in love,” Lopez sang within the title song.
The album, she said, was inspired by her rekindled relationship with Affleck. But the film is more about “your journey as a human being, the journey of a human being and what it takes to go from heartbreak back to love. Or the journey of a hopeless romantic looking for love.” In the film, she played a personality called The Artist, who also decided as a toddler what she desired to be when she grew up: “in love.”
But the road was rocky. In an early scene, the artist sits on the back of a motorbike, riding along a beach with a well-built man wearing a face mask. Then the motorcycle crashes.
“Not all love stories have a happy ending,” she says.
Originally published:
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