The Rise and Fall of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s Romance

The tale of A-list actor Ben Affleck and multi-talented singer Jennifer Lopez’s love story has spanned decades, films, hundreds of salacious tabloid stories, and even two unsuccessful engagements. The two movie stars were one of the hottest couples to watch in the early 2000s, ultimately earning their nickname “Bennifer” and dazzling their millions of adoring fans with their red-carpet appearances and striking star power. They ultimately split in 2004, however, shocking fans everywhere when they decided they weren’t meant to be.

The couple reunited nearly two decades later, delighting fans when they rekindled their romance after splitting with their previous partners. Another engagement, a surprise Las Vegas wedding, and a shared Los Angeles mansion weren’t enough to keep this couple together, however, and Bennifer called it quits yet again in 2024 — with JLo filing for divorce.

Despite many fans rooting for them to ride off into the Los Angeles sunset together, this pair can’t seem to find their footing in the dog-eat-dog-world of Hollywood. Many have speculated that the “JLo Effect” – which refers to her ability to influence pop culture in droves and only get better with age — may have been too much for Affleck’s low-profile lifestyle.

Jennifer Lopez immediately fell hard for Ben Affleck, admitting that something inside her had shifted upon meeting him. The two first crossed paths in 2002 while filming the movie “Gigli,” when the “Let’s Get Loud” singer was still married to her then-husband Cris Judd. But her instant chemistry with the actor was obvious both on and off the screen, and it wasn’t long before she and Judd called off their marriage and she and Affleck went public with their romance.

“I felt like … ‘Okay, this is it,'” the singer recalled to People in 2016. The dawn of the frenzied paparazzi and tabloid era meant that the couple was subject to incessant media attention, and soon Bennifer was born. From star-studded red-carpet appearances to Affleck’s iconic appearance in her “Jenny from the Block” music video, the public couldn’t get enough of their romance.

It wasn’t long after Bennifer was born in the summer of 2002 that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez decided to get hitched. In a whirlwind move, the couple got engaged just months after their romance first reached the tabloids. The singer revealed the news in an interview with Diane Sawyer in November of that year, admitting that the “Air” star popped the question with a pink-solitaire diamond that was reportedly worth a whopping $2.5 million at the time.

While Lopez initially told Sawyer she thought Affleck was a typical Hollywood bad boy, or “skirt chaser” as she referred to him, he ultimately proved her wrong. She described him as, “Brilliantly smart … Loving. Charming. Affectionate,” adding, “And I just admire him in every way.”

As for Affleck, he admitted that his strong friendship with Lopez set the tone for their incredible bond. “Because she was married, there was no thought of a romantic relationship, so that created the opportunity to get to know each other without any of the falseness that goes with courtship because you’re trying to make a good impression,” he told Vanity Fair in 2003.

The media circus that surrounded every move Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck made together seemed to cause their first split. While the couple had planned to get married in the fall of 2003, they decided to postpone the date due to the tabloid attention at the time. “When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realized that something was awry,” the couple said in a statement to   People  at the time.

Their relationship seemed to only deteriorate after the fact, as the couple broke up not long after in January of 2004. In a 2022 interview with Apple Music (via Elle), the “On the Floor” singer blamed their split on a lack of maturity. “We weren’t ready to deal with and look at each other and go, ‘What we have is real, we need to buckle down, we need to do some work.’ We just weren’t there yet,” she admitted.

After their fairytale wedding wasn’t meant to be, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck found love with other people. The actor started dating his former co-star, Jennifer Garner, in 2004, and the two tied the knot in 2005. As for Lopez, she married her long-time music collaborator Marc Anthony in 2004. Lopez and Anthony had fraternal twins Emme and Max in 2008.

However, both Jennifer Lopez’s and Ben Affleck’s subsequent relationships didn’t work out. Affleck and Jennifer Garner called it quits in 2015 when they announced their plans to   divorce,  but continued to remain on amicable terms and co-parent their three children together. Marc Anthony and Lopez’s breakup was made public in 2011,  with Anthony filing for divorce a year later listing “irreconcilable differences” as the motive for the split.

Despite Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s relationship crumbling under media pressure in the early 2000s, the two shared a mutual respect for one another that seemed to never burn out. The Boston-bred actor praised Lopez’s work in the 2019 film, “Hustlers,” telling New York Times journalist Brooks Barnes  he was rooting for her to be in the running for an Oscar for her lead role in the movie. “She should have been nominated. She’s the real thing,” Affleck enthused.

Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez first met in 1999 when she signed an autograph for the former professional baseball player, but it wouldn’t be until many years later that they became an item. After running into each other a few times over the years, Rodriguez finally asked Lopez on a date in 2017. JLo and A-Rod got engaged in 2019 during a trip to the Bahamas. Nearly two years later, reports surfaced of tensions between the two, and their breakup followed in April of 2021.

After splitting with Jennifer Garner in 2015, Ben Affleck dated several different women in the years that followed. He started dating producer Lindsay Shookus in  2017, and the pair quickly moved in together just a few months later. Shookus and Affleck endured their ups and downs, splitting in August of 2018, briefly reconciling, and later breaking up for good in the spring of 2019. Affleck also had a brief relationship with Katie Cherry in 2019.

To the amazement of millions of fans across the world, Bennifer came back in full force in July of 2021. Amid a series of sizzling hot bikini photos that JLo posted on Instagram in celebration of her 52nd birthday, she shared a steamy photo of her kissing her former flame Ben Affleck. “5 2 … what it do …” she captioned the post. The pair walked their first red carpet together in nearly two decades a few months later for the premiere of Affleck’s film, “The Last Duel.”

Jennifer Lopez got engaged for the sixth time in 2022. The star announced the news in her OnTheJLo newsletter that Ben Affleck had asked her to marry him with a giant diamond in April of that year. In the video, Lopez shows off the sparkler on her ring finger while listening along to her song, “Dear Ben.” She described it as “the most perfect moment.”

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck tied the knot in a surprise Las Vegas wedding just a few months after the “Good Will Hunting” star popped the question. About a month later, the couple celebrated their marriage with a separate ceremony in Georgia amongst their closest friends and family members. The event took place on Affleck’s nearly 90-acre property, with Lopez dazzling down the aisle in a Ralph Lauren gown.

What says commitment like permanent ink? That seemed to be Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s thoughts exactly when they celebrated their love and recent move-in together with two matching tattoos. The couple started living together in January of 2023. Not long after, the singer revealed she and her beau got matching tattoos declaring their love for one another. “Commitment … Happy Valentine’s Day my love,” she wrote in an Instagram post that featured photos of their matching ink designs.

Trouble appeared to start brewing in Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s relationship around May 2024 when the couple hadn’t been photographed side by side in over a month. The couple was seen together at Affleck’s daughter Violet’s graduation ceremony later that month, but it wasn’t long before tensions came to a head. By late June, the actor was seen moving his stuff out of their shared home and a source revealed  to People that he was staying at a rental nearby.

In August of that year, an insider told the publication that the couple was going their separate ways. “Jennifer is trying to find a new home to start fresh,” the source revealed to People. Later that month, JLo filed for divorce from Affleck, on the same day they had tied the knot in Georgia two years ago. The singer named “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split and filed without a lawyer.

Reports suggested that there seemed to be disagreements about how much should be made public about their love affair. “I don’t think he’s very comfortable with me doing all of this,” she revealed in the film (per New York Post). “But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist and he’s going to support me in every way he can.” A source told People that Affleck may have had a darker side to him that contributed to the downfall of their marriage. “You could see the erratic behavior, the giant mood swings,” the source explained of the actor.