Jennifer Lopez Talks ‘PTSD’ Before Ben Affleck Wedding, Embracing ‘Bennifer’ Nickname on ‘Kimmel’

Jennifer Lopez stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night (Jan. 18) to plug her new rom-com, Shotgun Wedding. And while the movie starring Lopez and Josh Duhamel alongside Golden Globe winner Jennifer Coolidge, rocker Lenny Kravitz and Callie Hernandez looks very cute, let’s be honest, the real wedding Jimmy wanted to talk about was Bennifer’s take two.

Kimmel congratulated the singer/actress/dancer on the six month anniversary of her Las Vegas wedding to actor Ben Affleck as JLo unfolded the tangled tale of how she and Affleck finally made it to the aisle after months of angst and agita. “We were planning to get married in August in Savannah [Georgia],” she said of the proper nuptials the couple were arranging for friends and family at the actor’s southern estate.

“And it was so stressful,” she said. “And a month before… and I don’t know if you guys know this, but 20 years ago we were supposed to get married and it all kind of fell apart back then and this time we, I absolutely had a little PTSD.” Though they were both happy that their decades-long love affair was finally going to be official, Lopez said the planning was so nerve-wracking that one day Affleck said, “‘f–k it, let’ just go to Vegas and get married tonight.'”

So, of course, they did… but only after Lopez finished her rehearsals that day and Affleck took care of all the details. “It was amazing, it was the best night of our lives,” she said of the Sin City wedding that featured two of their five shared children from previous marriages as witnesses and which found the A-listers waiting in line at the county clerk’s office with some normies just before midnight waiting their turn for the proper paperwork. Most importantly, after two decades, Lopez confirmed that not only was there a new wedding ring, but Affleck had to ask her to marry him all over again to make it official.

Kimmel also wondered if Lopez was okay with the celeb portmanteau Bennifer and JLo said she’s learned to embrace it after initially being meh on it. “Actually it wasn’t a bad thing even years ago but I think it became a thing where people made fun of it,” she said, noting that other couples were subject to the same treatment in the years after as blending celeb couple names became a thing.

Luckily for them, the famed Little White Wedding Chapel agreed to stay open late for them and even offered to have their Elvis impersonator officiant do the deed, which the couple politely declined. And even though Kimmel griped that he was not invited to any of the couple’s weddings, he still got them a very appropriate gift, a pair of sterling silver bride and groom Dunkin’ Donuts cups in keeping with Affleck’s love of the chain.

In addition to talking about the “Dear Ben Pt. 2” song on her upcoming This Is Me… Now album, the singer was also surprised when Kravitz dropped in unexpectedly (via a fake helicopter landing on the roof bit) to invite the entire studio audience to that night’s Shotgun Wedding premiere.

Watch Lopez on Kimmel below.