Jennifer Lopez has revealed when she and Ben Affleck actually separated after months of speculation that the pair’s marriage was on the rocks.
According to divorce papers filed by Lopez, 55, and obtained by Us Weekly on Tuesday, August 20, the pair officially called it quits on April 26.
Rumors began to swirl that there was tension between Lopez and Affleck, 52, in April, when People reported that the pair had not been photographed together publicly for more than 47 days.
At the time, Lopez and Affleck had not been seen together since March 30 in New York City, when they were spotted holding hands. (Their last red carpet appearance, meanwhile, occurred back in February for the premiere of Lopez’s This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.)
In May, Lopez was preparing to serve as a cohost at the 2024 Met Gala in Manhattan. The singer revealed via Vogue’s official Instagram account at the time that she was struggling to decide what to wear to the event.
“I have a few different sketches, I’m still deciding,” she said in the April 17 post that charted her preparation. In the video, she enthusiastically spoke about her cohosting duties, smiling for the camera and telling fans that it was a “real honor” to be selected by Anna Wintour.
Just 10 days after the couple privately separated, Lopez attended the Met Gala on her own on May 6. Later that month, she also attended the Los Angeles and Mexico City premieres of her Netflix film, Atlas, sans Affleck.
At the Mexico City premiere, Lopez was asked a question about her marriage to which her Atlas costar Simu Liu swiftly shut down. “OK, we’re not doing that,” the actor, 35, responded. “Thank you so much, guys. We really appreciate it.”
Lopez took a moment before addressing the question herself. “You know better than that,” she said.
That same month, an insider exclusively told Us that Lopez and Affleck were “having issues in their marriage,” which allegedly began when Lopez ramped up “work commitments” in preparation for her This Is Me … Live Tour. (The tour was later canceled by Lopez, who credited wanting to “be with her children, family and close friends,” per an email shared by Live Nation and her fan newsletter at the time.)
The insider also noted that Lopez had begun looking at a home in Los Angeles that she claimed was an investment property. A second insider told Us that Affleck was staying at a place in Los Angeles, not the couple’s shared property which they purchased in March 2022 that overlooked the Hollywood Hills.
In June, a source confirmed to Us that Lopez and Affleck were in the process of selling their Los Angeles home. The following month, Lopez celebrated her 55th birthday in the Hamptons without Affleck.
The timing of Lopez’s Hamptons trip also coincided with the estranged couple’s second wedding anniversary. Neither Lopez or Affleck publicly commented on the July 16 milestone, with Affleck spending the occasion in Los Angeles.
Rumors of trouble within Lopez and Affleck’s marriage first surfaced when the pair attended the Grammys together in February 2023.
The then-couple were filmed at the event in what some viewers speculated to be a disagreement. Affleck’s less than enthused demeanor led to many online memes at the time, despite Lopez telling fans via Instagram that she had the “best night” with “my love, my husband.”
One year later in February 2024, Lopez dropped her ninth studio album, This Is Me … Now, which featured a “cinematic odyssey” sequel to her 2002 album, This Is Me … Then, released during her first romance with Affleck.
Lopez gushed about collaborating with Affleck on the project, telling Variety at the time, “I feel like because Ben and I have rediscovered each other — and now that we’re married — I have something to offer.”
Despite Lopez’s praise for Affleck’s collaboration, the Oscar winner expressed that he experienced a certain element of discomfort in being featured in Lopez’s work at the time.
“I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told,” he said during The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a documentary that explored Lopez’s more recent album. “If you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”
Lopez and Affleck met on the set of Gigli in 2002 and the pair were engaged by November that year. Just days before their scheduled September 2003 wedding, they called the wedding off and in January 2004, Lopez and Affleck announced their breakup.
But their story didn’t end there. In May 2021, Us confirmed that the former couple were spending time together and in July that year, Lopez and Affleck were spotted house-hunting together.
The pair staged a surprise wedding in Las Vegas on July 16, 2022 and were married in a second ceremony in Georgia on August 20 that year.
Two years later, to the date, Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck at a court in Los Angeles.
