Once upon a time Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck: the endless (love) story
In the early 2000s, they were one of Hollywood's hottest couples, and nearly got married. Twenty years, a few marriages and divorces later, the two stars have reconnected. A look back at a story that makes people dream today.
It's a kiss that seals everything, an act with multiple meanings, which sounds both like new hope: Monday, June 14, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are caught exchanging a kiss during a romantic dinner at the very chic restaurant Nobu, in Malibu (California).
EXCLUSIVE: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez make out at steamy PDA-packed dinner https://t.co/UcgSI9JTyD pic.twitter.com/yCZYK42sTT
— Page Six (@PageSix) June 14, 2021
They thus confirm what everyone, for a few weeks, already knew: after a passionate relationship almost twenty years ago, between 2002 and 2004, J.Lo and the actor-director found themselves. Picking up their story where they left off.
"Troubled Love"
We are at the end of 2001: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez meet on the set of Gigli (in French, Amours troubles), a romance against a backdrop of a hitman and mafia story. Both already have a career in good shape: Jennifer Lopez's second album, J.Lo, released at the beginning of the year (and filled with unstoppable hits such as My Love Don't Cost a Thing and I'm Real), works as well as the romantic comedy A marriage too perfect, where she gives the answer to Matthew McConaughey. Ben Affleck, he is the handsome kid who goes through blockbusters such as Armageddon (1998) or Pearl Harbor (2011), capable of saving the world (or at least part of it) while living a torrid love story, all without be messed up for a single second.
On the romance side, Jennifer Lopez recovered from a first high-profile relationship with rapper Sean "P-Diddy" Combs by marrying, seven months after meeting him on the set of a clip, a dancer named Cris Judd . Ben, meanwhile, probably area of trysts in “dates” off the radar (social networks and other dating sites are not yet there to display it, as happened last May) since his split with Gwyneth Paltrow two years earlier. They are beautiful, they are young, they are ready, “watch out, ladies and gentlemen, it's about to start!”.
Not very discreet heroes
It was in July 2002, when J.Lo had (already) just divorced Cris Judd, that she and Ben Affleck were first seen in each other's arms on the anniversary of a friend, as reported by the New York Post at the time. It's passion, so crazy that it doesn't bother with any discretion: not content with being often the target of the media, which they regale with public displays of affection and other appearances on red carpets, they coo through the press.
From April 2002, when they were not (officially) together and Jennifer Lopez had just received an award, Ben easily bought a full page in Variety magazine to congratulate her, as the Vulture site: "You have shown kindness, dedication, diligence, lofty vision, beauty in courage, great empathy, incredible talent, true mastery and genuine grace", writes there -he. “It has been nothing short of an honor and a pleasure to work with you. I just wish I was lucky enough to be in all your movies. With love, respect and gratitude, Ben Affleck.”
Later, when their relationship became official this time, J.Lo told People magazine how she felt the first time she saw the actor on the set of Gigli: "I thought to myself.. 'Ok, so that's it.'” 'That', so that's true love. The couple will be the first to be mentioned, in popular culture, by the fusion of their two first names: Bennifer was born, long before Brangelina or Kimye.
"From the block"
And Bennifer never stops throwing his love and his best life in the face of the world: on November 5, 2002, MTV broadcasts for the first time the clip of Jenny From the Block, a huge hit in which the popstar recalls that, despite love, glory, beauty and Versace dresses, she remains little Jennifer from the Bronx, raised in a modest Puerto Rican family. In the video, we see falsely stolen images showing Ben and Jen sunbathing on a yacht, the actor splitting a caress and a kiss on the posterior of his partner.
Beyond the dripping glam of highlighter and glittery eyeshadow, the clip is also meant to convey a message: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are just ordinary people, lovers from the block whom the mean paparazzi keep harassing. . Hard to swallow when, a few days later, it was during an interview given on the highly watched Primetime show, on ABC, that Jennifer Lopez revealed that Ben Affleck and she were engaged. The two stars are beginning to be taken for spoiled children: in 2008, Ben Affleck will confide that having shot in this clip remains for him a "great regret". Jennifer Lopez, meanwhile, will even try, in 2004, to make it disappear from the sites of music channels like MTV or VH1.
“Make a Gigli”
In the meantime, Bennifer is going to get married. The request, held at the house of the singer's mother, was done in a "traditional but very spectacular way". Understand: with candles, roses, one knee on the ground and... A monstrous pink diamond of 6.10 carats, with an estimated value of 1.2 million dollars (nearly a million euros, editor's note). That the star will not hesitate to wear at all times, from red carpets to press conferences.
But the road that leads Bennifer to the altar is strewn with pitfalls. July 2003: The couple have to deal with rumors that Ben went to a strip club in Vancouver, as reported by People magazine, and came out well accompanied. The actor attacks the media which propagate information, Jen defends it publicly: "We can no longer go to a place to spend time with friends without it turning into a national scandal", she complains in W.
August: their film Gigli hits the screens. The critics give their verdict: it's a turnip, coupled with a commercial flop (7.7 million dollars in revenue, for a budget of 75.6 million), of those who make a date in the history of cinema; so much so that for some time, Americans used the expression “doing a Gigli” to talk about a resounding failure. September: the day before their wedding, planned to be a gigantic party of 400 people in Santa Barbara, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck announce, through the press, that they are suspending the festivities: "Due to excessive media attention around our wedding, we decided to postpone the date. When we found ourselves seriously considering hiring the services of three “fake brides” in three different locations, we realized something was wrong.”
Alas, the wedding will never take place: on January 23, 2004, Jennifer Lopez, confirms, via a press release to the Associated Press, that their engagement is broken. The other film in which they appear together, Jersey Girl, will be released in March, without the promotional aura of a couple who have just exploded in midair. In 2014, in her book True Love, Jennifer Lopez confided that this was the first time she saw her heart break: "I felt like it was being ripped out of my chest. “, she writes, relayed by the site PageSix.
So far, so close
Jenifer Lopez and Ben Affleck then take different paths. In June 2004, J-Lo married singer Marc Anthony (already an ex, with whom she had a brief relationship in 1999). Together they will have twins, Max and Emme, born in 2008, and will divorce three years later. If her acting career stagnates in a few forgettable romantic comedies, she extends her dominance in pop with albums in Spanish, collaborations with musicians from new generations (remember this revised Lambada with rapper Pitbull) , and a jury spot on American Idol. A true national treasure, she is invited to sing at the Superbowl in 2020 and at the investiture of Joe Biden, a year later.
For his part, the actor can recycle the “Bennifer” brand with Jennifer Garner, met on the set of Pearl Harbor in 2000 (but with whom he will later admit to having had a brief relationship in 2002 on the film Daredevil). Together they will have three children, Violet, Serafina and Samuel. Having become a recognized director (his third film, Argo, released in 2012, was crowned at the Oscars and the Golden Globes), he also won prestigious roles, as a lover with Terrence Mallick (A la marvel, in 2012), or as mystified husband in Gone Girl (2014) until Batman, which he will play several times.
But his divorce from Jennifer Garner, pronounced in 2011, precipitates him in a spiral made of alcohol, depression, and dubious tattoos in the shape of a dragon. A difficult period of which he will speak bluntly in an interview with the New York Times, where he evokes their separation as “the biggest regret of his life” (in front of the clip of Jenny from the block, therefore). The only bright spot: a brief but intense romance with the young Cuban actress Ana De Armas, met on the set of Deep Water, with whom he posted enamored selfies on Instagram for a year. Meanwhile, Jennifer had time to announce, then call off, her marriage to footballer Alex Rodriguez, whom she dated for three years.
Romantic getaways
The planets were therefore aligned for the stars to meet and play “Bennifer II, the return”. Everything has, once again, started in the media: in April 2021, Ben Affleck intervenes in the portrait that InStyle magazine devotes to Jennifer Lopez, and sings his praises there: “She remains, to this day, the most hardworking person that I have come across in this industry. She has great talent, but she worked very hard to achieve this success, and I'm glad she finally got the recognition she deserved." And to question his ex-fiancée: “Where are you hiding the fountain of youth? Why haven't you changed since 2003, when I look like I'm in my 40s...at best?" What the main interested responds: “Ben is funny! He still looks pretty good, too."
In good shape, and suddenly very busy: everything is accelerating for Bennifer who, according to those close to him, would never have cut off contact. The actor is thus spotted several times aboard a white SUV belonging to his ex-fiancée. The week of May 3, 2021, the Batman interpreter takes him for a romantic getaway to a ski resort in Montana. On Tuesday, June 1, PageSix released new photos showing them cuddling as they headed out for a one-on-one dinner date. And to anyone who would believe they're just friends, a source familiar with the matter sneers, still in PageSix: "as if they had never been."
Second chance
But things have changed: scalded by the first season of their relationship, whose overexposure precipitated the fall, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez cannot escape the paparazzi, but try to keep a (roughly) low profile. No more enamored looks and other embraces immortalized on film. From now on, it's the little everyday things that sign the proof of their love: this photo in which J.Lo wears the (old) plaid shirt seen on Ben a week earlier, as noted by Buzzfeed. That evening on June 13, as reported by PageSix, the actor spent at the casino with Jennifer's mother, Guadalupe (who knows about slot machines: in 2004, she won a jackpot of 2.4 million dollars at an Atlantic City facility). And finally, this kiss, exchanged in the presence of the children of J.Lo, Max and Emme.
I, for one, am totally here for the slow yet sure rekindling of this romance. https://t.co/Vm28252NIO
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) June 13, 2021
A miracle of love, and from another era, Bennifer II (whom some on Twitter like to call "Againiffer") delights the whole world. Too bling, too openly in love, didn't we take Act I seriously? We love Act II. Because it is proof, after a dark year of economic and health crisis, that great stories can happen. That, in a world still mourning the breakup between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, what was broken can be fixed. That even in love, recycling and second hand are now values on which we can bet. In short, that you can fall in love with your ex again. And above all, because their story can work: more mature, wiser, Ben Affleck and J.Lo can perhaps reset the counters to zero. Finally learn from the mistakes of the past. Finally living happily and perhaps (a little more) hidden.
