After a relationship that spanned two decades, two engagements, two weddings and headlines too numerous to count, Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles brought to an apparent end a celebrity coupling \u2014 or at least the second installment of it \u2014 that dazzled from the very heights of the pop culture firmament and emblazoned countless tabloid covers. The pair became known, even before such power-couple portmanteaus were ubiquitous, as \u201cBennifer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court records showed Lopez filed the petition Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The news was first reported by the TMZ website. TMZ reported further that Lopez listed the date of separation as April 26, 2024. It added that she did not mention any prenuptial agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After meeting, falling in love and getting engaged in the early 2000s \u2014 and starring together in 2003\u2019s infamous \u201cGigli\u201d and 2004\u2019s \u201cJersey Girl\u201d \u2014 the couple parted ways, blaming in part the pressure of the public eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But to the delight of many and perhaps the skepticism of others, they reunited two decades later and married \u2014 twice \u2014 in 2022.
\u201cLove is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,\u201d wrote Lopez, announcing their first, quickie Las Vegas wedding that July, and signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStick around long enough and maybe you\u2019ll 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\u2019ll spend forever with,\u201d she wrote in her newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple had flown to Las Vegas, lined up with their license with four other couples and were wed just after midnight at A Little White Wedding Chapel, where Lopez said a Bluetooth speaker played their brief march down the aisle. She called it the best night of the couple\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month later, they had a much grander wedding at Affleck\u2019s house in Georgia, in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both of them had been previously married. Affleck, 52, married Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children, in 2005. They divorced in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lopez, 55, had been married three times before. She was briefly married to Ojani Noa from 1997-1998 and to Cris Judd from 2001-2003. She and singer Marc Anthony were married for a decade, having wed in 2004, and share 14-year-old twins. She started dating former baseball player Alex Rodriguez in 2017, but the couple called off their engagement in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All along, it had been Lopez who was more vocal in describing her and Affleck\u2019s journey. When asked earlier this year whether she was harder on herself because her relationships had been so high-profile, Lopez agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh yeah. 100%. It\u2019s made me doubt myself and really feel bad about myself at times. Made me feel like I wanted to quit at times. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing where you learn how to navigate it,\u201d she told The Associated Press. \u201cYou take the things that could be constructive about that and use it, and the rest you kind of just throw away as kind of like haterations or, you know, other things like that and just be like, \u2018Whatever. I know who I am, I know what I want to do.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affleck himself expressed admiration for her self-possession, telling the AP last year that he agreed with the idea that Hollywood was unsure how to capitalize on her wide-ranging talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s in her prime,\u201d Affleck said then. \u201cShe\u2019s doing extraordinary work in large measure because she\u2019s taking that step to take responsibility for what she\u2019s doing rather than say, \u2018This is what I\u2019m being offered.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lopez is starring in the upcoming \u201cUnstoppable,\u201d under Affleck and Matt Damon\u2019s Artists Equity banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May, she starred in the Netflix movie \u201cAtlas.\u201d At the end of the month, she suddenly canceled her 2024 North American tour, saying she was \u201cheartsick and devastated\u201d to be letting fans down but the move was necessary. \u201cJennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,\u201d organizers said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tour was to be her first in five years, in support of her first solo album in a decade, \u201cThis Is Me…. Now\u201d and its companion film. a fictionalized look at her long love life, and a documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was a girl they\u2019d ask me what I\u2019d be. A woman in love is what I grew up wantin\u2019 to be,\u201d Lopez sang on the title track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The album, she said, was inspired by her rekindled relationship with Affleck. But the film was more \u201cabout your journey as a person, it\u2019s about one person\u2019s journey and what it takes to get from heartbreak back to love. Or a hopeless romantic\u2019s journey in their search for love.\u201d In the movie, she played a character called The Artist who, similarly, had decided as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up: \u201cin love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the road was rocky. In an early scene, The Artist is on the back of a motorcycle, riding across a beach, with a hunky man, face shielded. Then the motorcycle crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot all love stories have a happy ending,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a relationship that spanned two decades, two engagements, two weddings and headlines too numerous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n