Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s second act – billed as “Bennifer 2.0” – was a rollercoaster ride from the start and officially ended this week when Lopez filed for divorce from the Massachusetts-raised actor.
Lopez filed the divorce papers in Los Angeles on Tuesday, confirming rumors that have been circulating for months that the couple were on the verge of splitting up. According to media reports, the divorce filing revealed that the two have been living apart since April.
Affleck and Lopez filed for divorce after two years of marriage. They married in a small ceremony at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas shortly after midnight in July 2022. The following month, exactly two years before Lopez filed for divorce, they held a larger ceremony at Affleck’s home in Georgia.
Affleck, who was born in California but grew up in Massachusetts, was previously married to Jennifer Garner, with whom he has three children. Garner and Affleck were married from 2005 until their divorce in 2018.
As Jennifer Lopez prepared to file for divorce from Ben Affleck on August 20 in Los Angeles after two years of marriage, the “Argo” director was nowhere nearby.
Lopez has had three other marriages. She also had two broken engagements – one to former MLB player Alex Rodriguez in 2021 and a previous engagement to Affleck that was called off in 2004.
Affleck and Lopez do not have any children together.
The media and the public have been speculating for months that there is trouble with the couple – from paparazzi photos without a ring to real estate transactions to photos in which the couple look anything but happy together.
The two were busy with work during their second gig. They even starred in two Dunkin’ commercials at the SuperBowl, the first of which was filmed at a Dunkin’ location in Medford, where Affleck himself was serving customers at the drive-thru. Lopez pulls up at the end of the commercial, seems annoyed, and asks if that’s what her husband means when he says, “He goes to work all day.”
The follow-up spot ran during the 2024 Super Bowl and featured Affleck appearing at Lopez’s studio session in a “DunKing” outfit alongside fellow Massachusetts legends Tom Brady and Matt Damon.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck end their relationship after two engagements and two weddings.
Another Massachusetts-born actress and star of “The Office,” Mindy Kaling, praised Affleck at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night and encouraged him to “hang in there!”
Meanwhile, Lopez’s ex, Rodriguez, seemed to allude to the situation on his Instagram story on the day the divorce was filed, writing, “You either go one way or the other, but you might as well be the one calling the shots.”
It also seems to have been a tough year for Lopez professionally.
Her first studio album in ten years, released in February, failed to chart and the accompanying tour was cancelled. The album, titled “This Is Me… Now”, was almost entirely about her romance with Affleck and also included songs related to their relationship, such as “Midnight Trip to Vegas” and “Greatest Love Story Never Told”.
It was the sequel to her 2002 blockbuster “This Is Me… Then,” which spawned megahits like “Jenny From the Block” and “All I Have” during her first relationship with Affleck.
Jennifer Lopez threw a lavish birthday party over the weekend, which reportedly didn’t have a single celebrity guest in attendance.
Its 2024 release coincided with a documentary about their love story, which received mixed reviews. In the film, Variety reported at the time of its release that Lopez’s girlfriend Jane Fonda had expressed concerns about the optics of her and Affleck’s marriage.
“It feels too much like you’re trying to prove something instead of just living it. You know, every other photo you see the two of you kissing and hugging,” she told Lopez.
Affleck was back in New England this week and was seen sending his daughter off to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, for her first year of college.
