History repeats as Hollywood’s worst-kept secret revealed; Lopez, Affleck to split
Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after two years of marriage, two decades after they first split.
FILE - Actor Ben Affleck, left, and actor-singer Jennifer Lopez attend the premiere of "The Last Duel" on Oct. 9, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Lopez submitted divorce papers in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Spokespeople for the Hollywood actors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The filing was first reported by the TMZ website. TMZ said Lopez listed the date of separation as April 26, 2024. It added that she did not mention any prenuptial agreement.
The couple exchanged vows in a Las Vegas wedding chapel in July 2022, roughly two decades after a high-profile romance that ended in a break-up.
In the early 2000s, the pair dubbed “Bennifer” were the most talked about couple in the celebrity world in a relationship marked by his-and-her luxury cars and a large 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring. They abruptly called off their wedding in 2003 and split up a few months later.
But to the delight of many and perhaps the scepticism of others, they reunited two decades later and married – twice – in 2022.
“Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” wrote Lopez, announcing their first, quickie Las Vegas wedding and signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12:30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with,” she wrote in her newsletter.
Both of them had been previously married.
Lopez married Latin singer Marc Anthony, her third husband, just five months after her 2004 split with Affleck.
Affleck, director and star of Oscar-winning film Argo, went on to marry, and later divorce, actress Jennifer Garner.
Lopez and Affleck started dating again in 2021, months after she and baseball star Alex Rodriguez called off their engagement and ended a four-year relationship.
Lopez said later that the initial break-up with Affleck “was the biggest heartbreak of my life.”
“I honestly felt like I was going to die,” she said in an interview with Apple Music in November 2022. “But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending.”
with AP
