It’s official: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are dating. Again.
Lopez filed for divorce in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 20 — the second anniversary of their lavish Georgia wedding. Affleck, 52, and Lopez, 55, renewed their relationship in 2021 after nearly two decades apart. They have been plagued by divorce rumors for months, with speculation about their separate lives spiraling in May.
“It’s sad, but it’s for the best,” a source who knows both Affleck and Lopez tells Yahoo Entertainment. “They’re just different people when it comes down to it, but there’s been a lot of love over the years.”
Neither Affleck nor Lopez has publicly commented on the split. Representatives for the stars did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s requests for comment.
What went wrong?
Multiple insiders tell Yahoo that certain issues that tore the superstars apart in 2004 — priorities, career ambitions, how much of their private lives they wanted to share — have resurfaced.
Affleck and Lopez have been open about some of their struggles, and have discussed how public scrutiny tore them apart 20 years ago. They seemed to have a better handle on things the second time around, finding a balance between the very public way Lopez wants to live her life and Affleck’s need for privacy.
“The catalyst for [our first breakup] “This was a huge scrutiny of our private lives,” Affleck said in Lopez’s February documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told“I had a very strong sense of boundaries around press in the beginning. While I don’t think Jen objected to it in the same way that I did, I did object to it. When we got back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want to do is have a relationship on social media.’ That’s when I realized it’s not fair to ask.”
That seemed to work…until it didn’t.
Sources close to the couple tell Yahoo that some close to them noticed tensions in their marriage escalating around the time of Lopez’s Affleck-inspired projects, including her album This is me…now. She self-financed a $20 million accompanying film (This is me… Now: a love story) and documentary. Affleck participated in both and it was clear in the documentary that he was uncomfortable with some of the things she decided to share.
During their first Christmas together, Affleck gave Lopez a book containing “every letter and email” they’d ever written to each other, starting in 2001. While making her album, Lopez shared the personal messages with her songwriters for inspiration, a move that shook the Oscar-winning actor to his core.
“Jen was really inspired by this experience, and that’s how artists do their work,” Affleck said in the documentary. “As a writer and a director, I certainly do the same things. But things that are private, I’ve always felt sacred and special because they’re partly private. So this was a bit of an adjustment for me.”
Lopez added: “There’s the personal story of Ben and I that’s never been told. I don’t think he’s comfortable with me doing all this. But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, he’s going to support me in every way he can because he knows he can’t stop me from making the music that I’ve made and writing the words that I’ve written.” The singer admitted that Affleck wasn’t entirely comfortable being her muse.
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment in February, Lopez indicated that she and Affleck have matured and are now dealing with the public criticism. (“I feel very confident in who I am and what I bring to the table,” Lopez explained. “There’s not really anything anyone can say to break that.”)
Affleck and Lopez’s interactions have been picked apart online since they got back together, but they’ve done a good job of defusing speculation. They even got in on the “sad Affleck” joke — and capitalized on it — with a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial for the Super Bowl in February. Lopez happily promoted her projects and raved about her relationship with Affleck in the weeks since. Then there was a noticeable change.
Lopez’s album flopped and her world tour, This is me… Livewas scaled back due to alleged lackluster ticket sales. In May, media reported that the couple had split after several high-profile solo performances. Unbeknownst to the public, the two had already split — Lopez’s divorce filing listed April 26 as the official date.
Affleck was absent from the premiere of Lopez’s new film on May 20 Atlas and she didn’t speak about him or their relationship, ignoring questions from the press about the rumors.
On May 31, Lopez announced the cancellation of her This is me… Live tour. The singer explained in her newsletter that she was “utterly saddened and devastated” by the decision, but called it “absolutely necessary.” Concert promoter Live Nation added that she was taking time off to be with her “children, family and close friends.”
In the days that followed, she and Affleck presented a united front, making multiple public appearances together at graduation ceremonies. Behind the scenes, they quietly put their $60 million mansion, which they purchased in May 2023, up for sale, fueling speculation that they were dividing their assets before officially calling it quits on their marriage.
The estranged couple then spent the summer apart, with Lopez in New York and Affleck reportedly focusing on his work in L.A. Their second anniversary on July 16 passed without either of them saying anything about it. (When the couple wed in Las Vegas, Lopez admitted to having “a little bit of PTSD” as a result of calling off their dream wedding 20 years earlier.)
Lopez celebrated her 55th birthday with a lavish Bridgeton-themed party and her husband was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he bought his own $20 million home in LA. When Lopez returned to California in August, the last time she and Affleck saw each other was on his birthday, August 15. Five days later, she filed for divorce.
Lopez is clearly sending some sort of message with her filing. The fact that she filed on August 20th — the second anniversary of their wedding — is telling. She filed for divorce on her own without an attorney and is technically self-represented at this point.
Lopez “was done waiting,” a source told People. “She really tried her best to make everything work and she’s heartbroken over it.”
