On the same day that Jennifer Lopez officially filed for divorce from husband Ben Affleck, whom she was married to for two years, the actor was reportedly spotted without his wedding ring.
On Tuesday, August 20, Lopez filed the couple’s divorce papers on the occasion of the second anniversary of their wedding celebration in Georgia.
On the same day, according to PeopleThe actor was spotted in the parking lot of a building in Los Angeles wearing “a gray T-shirt, jeans and black-tinted sunglasses,” but no wedding ring on his left hand.
According to the same publication, Affleck has been “spotted in the same office building on several other occasions in recent weeks,” after spending the summer apart from his estranged wife, who enjoyed shopping trips with their children, a solo vacation in Italy and a Bridgerton-themed birthday party in the Hamptons.
Rumors that the couple were getting a divorce had been swirling for months, especially after Affleck moved out of their shared home and the couple put their multi-million dollar LA estate up for sale.
Insiders claimed that Affleck “showed no interest” to maintain the relationship, while others claimed the actor continued to struggle with Lopez’s fame.
For the uninitiated: excessive media attention was the reason the couple gave for ending their engagement in 2004. When the two met again, Affleck even said at one point that he did not want a “social media relationship.”
In fact, some believe that Lopez decided to document her rekindled love in her documentary The greatest love story never told was a problem that ultimately led to the failure of their marriage.
A special moment in the film, reported the Daily Mailfeatured an interaction between Lopez and Affleck after Lopez revealed that she intentionally showed songwriters a personal gift Affleck had given her.
“My book that I had given her was down there. She said, ‘I read it to people,'” Affleck said at the time, visibly upset. “That’s kind of the inspiration and I showed them the book.’ I said, ‘You showed all those letters to all the musicians?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll call you Pen Affleck.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God.'”
Other reports said Lopez was simply tired of being humiliated by Affleck.
“Jennifer said she was tired of being humiliated by Ben and she waited until the second anniversary because she wanted to stab,” a source recently told The Daily Mail. “But it didn’t hurt him. He’s been done for a long time and deep down she knows it. He let her do it so she wouldn’t look like the bad guy.
“After four failed marriages, her friends believe she should look inward and focus on herself rather than what others expect of her and finally figure out who she is and what she wants from her future,” the insider added.
TMZ was the first to break the news of the couple’s split, reporting that Lopez filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court alone and without a lawyer. The publication also revealed that J.Lo had set a separation date of April 26, 2024.