In August 2024, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck. Rumors of their split had swirled for months, but the news was still shocking for Bennifer fans. Now, more than seven months after the divorce filing, Ben has finally broken his silence.
The pair met on the set of their film Gigli in 2002. After an engagement that November, they ended their relationship in early 2004. Ben and Jen reconnected nearly 20 years later in 2021, got engaged for a second time in April 2022, and said “I do” in July 2022.
Let’s take a closer look at what went wrong, according to Ben.
In a recent interview, Ben shared why he decided to participate in J.Lo’s documentary.
Despite preferring to keep his personal life private, Ben joined Jennifer for her 2024 documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told. He opened up about the decision during an interview with GQ published on March 25.
“As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things,” the Good Will Hunting actor told the publication. “And so I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that? Because … I love and support this person. I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that.”
Ben clarified the documentary was not the reason for their split.
During the sit-down with GQ, Ben stressed that J.Lo’s documentary was not to blame for their relationship woes.
“I think it’s important to say that wasn’t the cause of some major fracture,” he explained. “It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, ‘Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had.'”
Ben Affleck addressed his and Jennifer Lopez’s divorce too.
“There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue,” Ben insisted. “The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’ Well, there is no, ‘This is what happened.'”
He added, “It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do.”
He added that he has ‘nothing but respect’ for his ex.
Despite their differences and the end of their relationship, Ben made it clear that he has “nothing but respect” for Jennifer.
“I guess there’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something,” he told GQ of their breakup. “But honestly, like I said, the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting.”
Previously, Jennifer has spoken about the split.
In October 2024, J.Lo spoke with comedian Nikki Glaser for Interview magazine about her and Ben’s divorce.
“You have to be complete, if you want something that’s more complete,” she explained. “You have to be good on your own. I thought I learned that, but I didn’t. Then, this summer, I had to be like, ‘I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that.’”
