It’s officially over for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez … again!
TMZ confirmed Lopez filed for divorce, little more than two years after saying “I do” in a July 2022 Las Vegas wedding and three years after rekindling their romance after splitting more than 20 years prior. They reportedly do not have a prenup.
Speculation of a split has been rampant for months now, after Lopez showed up to the Met Gala — which she was co-chair of this year, alone. Affleck allegedly missed the event due to a work commitment, as he was filming The Accountant 2 in Los Angeles.
The date of separation was listed as April 26, 2024, which would have been little more than a week before the Gala on May 6. The last public event they attended together, meanwhile, was a Los Angeles Lakers game back on March 16.
Signs of Trouble
Of course, the signs of a split have been pretty visible for some time, as the two continued to be seen without the other at events and red carpets for months.
Lopez went on to attend Paris Fashion Week and all the promotional events for her Netflix movie Atlas solo. Affleck was also MIA from her Bridgerton-themed birthday festivities in the Hamptons in July, while she attended a Bruno Mars concert without Ben on the night of his own birthday last week — though there are reports she did stop by his rental home to “congratulate” him.
She was spotted wearing her wedding band as recently as August 10, though that was really the only way the two made it look like they were maybe working things out. That, it seems, was all a ruse.
The couple even put their home on the market; Ben recently purchased his own house, while Jen continues to look for one herself.
Even before the Met Gala, however, Ben made headlines and got the meme treatment for appearing less than happy to be at Hollywood events with his other half.
Earlier this year, Lopez turned their very long and troubled love story into an album and accompanying film, This Is Me … Now. That project dropped back in February, along with a making of documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
In the latter, Affleck admitted that having Lopez share so much of their personal life was difficult — saying, “Things that are private, I’d always felt, are sacred and special, because, in part, they’re private. So this was something of an adjustment for me.”
He was also taken aback when she decided to share personal love letters he wrote her with musicians, to inspire the album.
“I don’t think he’s very comfortable with me doing all of this,” she also said in the doc about making their story so public. “But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist and he’s going to support me in every way he can because he knows he can’t stop me from making the music I made and writing the words that I wrote. That’s going to happen and he doesn’t want to stop me.”
He also explained that he’s always had a “very firm sense of boundaries” around the press, while Lopez does not. He said that initially, he told her, “Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media” — before he “realized it’s not a very fair thing to ask.”
In general, it seemed the two were always a bit at odds for how to handle the press and media scrutiny that comes with being a couple.
