It appears that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were inspired by Marry Me and Shotgun Wedding, both 2022 films where Lopez had a starring role.
After the 2004 split that left fans guessing and griping, the couple finally said, “I do,” when they eloped in July 2022, and became a blended family with five beautiful children.
Shocking fans when three days before, they called off their fairy tale wedding, Lopez, now 53, Affleck now 50, parted ways and spent two decades living separate lives.
In their time apart, Affleck married actor Jennifer Garner, whose dimpled smile leaves people breathless, and together, they share three kids, Violet (17), Seraphina (13) and Samuel (10). It’s no surprise that Violet inherited the million-dollar smile from her mother, the star of the superhero film, Daredevil.
In the meantime, Lopez–who co-stars in Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda–shocked fans again when she married Grammy-award winning musician Marc Anthony only five months after calling it quits with her Jersey Girl co-star, Affleck. With Anthony, she had two children in 2008, twins Max and Emme, the latter who performed with Lopez at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show.
In her book, True Love, Lopez explains her sprint to the alter with Anthony, “…it was my first real heartbreak, it felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest,” writes Lopez, who, at the time, had two marriages to her name. She continues, “I sought out comfort in another person, tried to find someone who could make me feel loved and wanted in my loneliest hour.”
Her marriage to Anthony ended in 2014 and Affleck’s coupling with the Alias star ended in 2018.
There’s no denying the influence that Affleck and Lopez have on Hollywood, the two are multi-talented, Lopez a prominent singer and actor, and Affleck an actor, producer, writer, and director.
And though Affleck, the star of Dazed and Confused, has not yet received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame–even Shrek has one–Garner and Lopez are both immortalized on the historic landmark.
Still, Affleck is prolific star. His breakout role was in 1997 with Good Will Hunting, a film that he and the equally talented Matt Damon wrote and starred. The movie, also starring the late Robin Williams, earned him and Damon their first Academy and a Golden Globe Award. Setting the stage for Affleck’s success, he then had leading roles in films like Armageddon (1998), Gone Girl (2014) and the 2020 sports drama The Way Back. His directorial debut was Gone Baby Gone (2007), a film that he co-wrote, and that stars his younger brother Casey Affleck. In 2012, he directed, produced, and played in Argo, which earned him two Golden Globes and another Academy Award. Affleck and Damon are co-owners of Artists Equity, a production company with titles like 2016’s Manchester by the Sea and Jason Bourne.
Lopez landed her first leading role in the biopic Selena, where her power vocals added to her acting skills. In 2001, her sophomore album, “J.Lo” debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200, the same week The Wedding Planner, where she co-stars alongside Hollywood hunk Matthew McConaughey, was a box-office hit.
Meeting in 2001 as co-stars of the romcom film, Gigli–a box-office bomb–Affleck then appeared in Lopez’s 2002 hit song “Jenny from the Block,” and in 2004, she played the dead wife to Affleck’s on-screen character in the film Jersey Girl. His character moving on from hers foreshadowed what was to come in their real-life relationship.
Days before their highly anticipated wedding, the couple released a statement “Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date.”
It turns out it was postponed for 20 years.
In 2022 the pair eloped, finally saying their vows at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas.
Promoting the 2022 comedy film Shotgun Wedding, where Lopez co-stars with Josh Duhamel, she joked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! of her hugely publicized first engagement with Affleck, and the “PTSD” she felt in planning another wedding with the same man.
“… I don’t know if you guys know this, but 20 years ago we were supposed to get married,” Lopez continued, recalling that Affleck alleviated her stress by planning their own shotgun wedding, theirs without the hostage situation like in the film.
After the pair returned from honeymooning in Europe, they had a ceremony in Georgia with family and friends, their children giving them away.
The fairy tale is just beginning. Lopez–now Jennifer Affleck–wrote in her newsletter, On the JLo, “The twenty years between those dreams of youth and the adult world of love and family we embraced that day, brought more to this marriage than either of us ever could have imagined. We weren’t only marrying one another; we were marrying these children into a new family. They were the only people we asked to stand up for us in our wedding party. To our great honor and joy, each one did.”
Now a large, blended family, the five children, who despite growing up with uber famous parents, are well-adjusted and embracing their journey with their new step siblings and stepparents.
Violet is growing fast, and the “mommy’s girl” shares the same stunning dimpled smile as her superstar mother. Though Violet has mostly stayed out of the spotlight, she was recently seen twinning with her mom, whom she already towers over, at the state dinner December 1, 2022, for French President Emmanuel Macron, which was also her 17th birthday.
And though Garner hasn’t spoken of Affleck marrying the other Jennifer, reports say the former couple are still best friends and she’s often seen spending time with her former husband, the children, and “Jenny from the Block.”
Kevin Smith, who co-wrote and directed Jersey Girl, said Lopez’s appearance in the film was cut to only 15 minutes because audiences were tired of the media frenzy surrounding Bennifer. Were you over Bennifer in the early 2000’s? What do you think about them finally getting married?
