Jennifer Lopez says reuniting with Ben Affleck 'not planned' but it was 'almost instant'

ben affleck jennifer lopez

Jennifer Lopez has admitted that despite lingering feelings that Ben Affleck had been “the one” when they split up over 20 years ago, neither imagined they would later end up together.

The Jenny From The Block singer, now 54, and Good Will Hunting actor, 51, both went on to marry other people and have children, but by 2021 were both single and found themselves reconnecting.

Reflecting on what took them so long to finally make a go of things during an interview on The Kyle And Jackie O Show on Thursday she said: “I fell in love with the love of my life [earlier in my life] and for whatever reasons, we needed to grow and do other things.

“We both went off and had children with other people and other relationships but, you know, in mind I kind of had it like, ‘Oh, that was kind of the one’, and so when we got back together I couldn’t believe it and I don’t think he could either.

“It’s not something we ever planned. We really had moved on with our lives but when we reconnected, it was almost instant and we just knew.”

The couple originally met on the set of the universally panned Gigli in 2001, while J-Lo was still married to her second husband, dancer Chris Judd.

Collectively known as “Bennifer”, they got engaged in November 2002 after a whirlwind, however, four days before they were due to get married, they called off citing “media attention” and eventually split in 2004.

The same year that she and Affleck split, Lopez went on to marry singer Marc Anthony, who filed for divorce in 2014. Affleck meanwhile marred actress Jennifer Garner and had three children, before the couple filed for divorce in 2017.

During Lopez’s marriage with Marc Anthony, the pair had two children, 15-year-old twins. She told the Australian radio hosts that she spent her time trying to be “a great mum and a great example for them”.

“Then when I got divorced, it kind of kick-started another phase of me trying to figure out myself and relationships and things like that,” she continued.

“I was like, ‘I’m good on my own, I’m fine, I love my life’. And when you get to that place, I think that’s when the universe kind of opened up to me and was like, ‘OK now you’re ready’,” she said.

The scene was eventually set and Lopez and Affleck finally walked down the aisle together at a chapel in Las Vegas in July 2022.

She is now gearing up for the release of her first studio album in over a decade on February 16, titled This Is Me… Now, along with a movie of the same name which will chronicle her tumultuous love life over the years and see Affleck co-star.

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