Jennifer Lopez Files for Divorce From Ben Affleck
Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after two years of marriage, Billboard can confirm.
The documents list the date of separation as April 26, 2024, but were filed on Aug. 20, which marks the two-year anniversary of their wedding ceremony in Georgia. Lopez and Affleck have yet to publicly announce their separation.
News of the filing was first reported by TMZ.
Lopez and Affleck first began dating back in 2002 after meeting on the set of Gigli, the first of two movies they would star in together (the second being Jersey Girl in 2004), before getting engaged. The couple delayed their planned 2003 wedding before calling it quits in 2004. Just a month after the couple officially tied the knot in Las Vegas, Bennifer celebrated their marriage in August 2022 in front of family and friends at their home in Riceboro on the Hampton Island preserve outside of Savannah, Georgia.
The marriage marked Lopez’s fourth wedding, following Ojani Noa, Cris Judd and Marc Anthony. Affleck was previously married to Jennifer Garner.
“I never thought that he and I would get back together,” Lopez told Billboard earlier this year of her relationship with the actor. “I just couldn’t give up on the idea that there was something amazing out there for me, even when it got really bad — and it did at times. I always believed deep, deep down to not give up completely. It wasn’t until I got to the point where I was really OK on my own and not having to be in a relationship when I feel like the universe kind of opened up and said, ‘Well here you go.’”
She added of the duo sharing the astrological sign of Leo, “Let me tell you it’s fiery! It’s great, and it’s challenging. We are both very willful. If you know what Leos are like, you know we’re passionate. Oh my God, so passionate, the both of us. One of us gets on a tangent about something, it’s like, ‘Just sit down and let him have his moment.’ Or he needs to sit down and let me have my moment. We know each other in that way and we’re getting to know each other again, which is really beautiful too.”
Reports of trouble in the marriage began in the spring, when Affleck was notably absent from the Los Angeles and Mexico City premieres of Netflix’s Atlas, which J.Lo starred in. During a promo stop in Mexico City in May, a reporter asked, “Is your divorce with Ben Affleck real? These rumors?”
In video of the exchange, Lopez’s co-star Simu Liu jumped in and said, “Okay, we’re not doing that. Thank you so much guys, we really appreciate it. Thank you.” Lopez then looked at the the reporter and said, “You know better than that.”
Rania Aniftos
Billboard