Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been compared to Kanye West and Bianca Censori after opening up about their romance in The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
The Prime Video documentary is third in the series of J. Lo’s media homages to her husband, following on from This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, a semi autobiographical ‘musical rom-com action sci-fi’ that served as a visual accompaniment to her single, This Is Me… Now.
While the documentary has been lauded by film critics, what seems apparent is one of the biggest sceptics of her project is her husband.
While Jennifer, 54, openly declares her love for Ben, 51, she admits her husband is ‘uncomfortable’ being her muse, while on his part, the actor confesses he didn’t want to be part in an autobiographical documentary.
Now body language expert Judi James has given her take on the candid scenes, revealing Jennifer has positioned herself to ‘squeeze maximum drama out of her “truth”‘, while Ben is so ‘uncomfortable’ on camera that he comes across as ‘childlike.’
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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been compared to Kanye West and Bianca Censori after opening up about their romance in The Greatest Love Story Never Told
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Fans have shared concerns that Bianca is being manipulated by her rapper husband Kanye after a series of of outings in outrageous outfits and out-of-character behaviour
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck release documentary on their romance
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The Greatest Love Story Never Told takes viewers behind-the-scenes with Jennifer as she independently produces a new album and movie that explores her 20-year journey to self-love.
Yet Judi revealed she could sense the underlying motive in the show, sharing: ‘This documentary appears to want to clear up any misguided illusions that being unfeasibly rich, talented, beautiful and successful plus married to the love of your life might be anything like the walk in the park it seems to us outsiders.
‘J-Lo’s words and her body language squeeze maximum drama out of her “truth” , with the overkill music soundtrack draining every last emotional drop.’
Of the singer’s vulnerability on screen, Judi continued: ‘Bare-faced to camera, J. Lo shows herself crying; looking scared and even eating and crying at the same time.
‘She tells us Ben is uncomfortable being her ‘muse’, which seems to put him in the same marital category as Bianca Censori only without the sheer bodysuits.
Fans have shared concerns that Bianca is being manipulated by her rapper husband Kanye after a series of of outings in outrageous outfits and out-of-character behaviour.
Judi went on: ‘Ben’s own words don’t quite synchronise with his wife’s.
‘It has been obvious from his body language during their first romance and again now during their constant PDAs both on the red carpet and in the streets that Ben is not a huge fan of being under constant press surveillance.
‘During a one-to-one with the camera his body language looks uncomfortable to the point of childlike. He squints his eyes, tilts his head and clasps his hands close to his head in a ritual of what looks like coyness.
‘His “tell” word seems to be ‘private’, while J. Lo seems to be using this documentary to spill her inner thoughts and emotions to the camera.’
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Of the singer’s vulnerability on screen, Judi shared: ‘Bare-faced to camera, J. Lo shows herself crying; looking scared and even eating and crying at the same time’
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Judi added: ‘J-Lo ’s words and her body language squeeze maximum drama out of her “truth” , with the overkill music soundtrack draining every last emotional drop’
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Despite their conflicting views on privacy, Judi noted that the pair rely on each other for ’emotional survival’, adding ‘Ben is shown in the role of supporter, coach and even mentor’
Despite their conflicting views on privacy, Judi noted that the pair rely on each other for ’emotional survival.’
She mused: ‘Ben is shown in the role of supporter, coach and even mentor.
‘While she leans against his ribs as though feeding off his energy, confidence and self-belief he stands tall with chest puffed in a gesture of alpha protector and kisses her on the head.
‘Their love story is shown as sweet but also as necessary to emotional survival.
‘J. Lo seems to need that support and those kisses, too. Describing herself as “terrified”, “stressed”, “broken” and even “older” we are shown glimpses of her in those various states to suggest what Ben is dealing with and helping.’
Jennifer reveals in the show that she was called ‘stupid’ by many around her when she announced the project, admitting while she ‘didn’t need to’ create the three-part homage, she ‘wanted’ to, in order to publicly profess her love for Ben.
Yet surprisingly, while she wins over movie critics and colleagues with the offering, it seems the main naysayer is the very man she’s created it for, her husband.
Throughout the show, Ben makes it clear that he doesn’t like shining the spotlight on their love life, calling their private moments ‘sacred’ and rolling his eyes when he recalls Jennifer sharing all their old love notes with her friends and colleagues.
Jennifer began the documentary by mocking her messy love life, noting that because she’d been married four times fans were no doubt thinking “what is this girl’s problem? It’s bulls**t.”‘
In a bid to silence the naysayers, she revealed: ‘I have decided to tell my story, or tell my truth, that I have never shared with anybody in the world, the truth about my personal life,’ adding that she was ‘very inspired’ to create new music after rekindling her romance with Ben.
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Judi added: ‘Their love story is shown as sweet but also as necessary to emotional survival. J. Lo seems to need that support and those kisses, too’
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Surprisingly, while Jen wins over movie critics and colleagues with the offering, it seems the main naysayer is the very man she’s created it for, her husband
The couple’s love story started in 2002 when they dated while filming the movie Jersey Girl. They became engaged the following year but broke up in 2004.
Yet it was meant to be for the couple, known collectively as Bennifer, who found their way back to one another in July 2021, marrying just one year later.
They detailed the highs and lows of their rekindled romance in J Lo’s new documentary, yet while she is hellbent on publicly declaring her love, she openly admits Ben is ‘uncomfortable’ being her muse.
Revealing why he’s agreed to take part in the documentary, Ben shared: ‘Jen was really inspired by this experience which is how artists do this work. I know as an artist and a director I definitely do the same thing.
READ MORE: Is Jennifer Lopez’s new doc The Greatest Love Story Never Told or a vanity project waiting to backfire?
‘But things that are private, I’d always felt are sacred and special because in part they’re private… So this was something of an adjustment for me.’
Elsewhere in the documentary, Jennifer shared the incredibly romantic gift her husband gave her for their first Christmas back together, revealing he gave her a book of every love note and email he’d sent her when they were first dating, a gift he dubbed ‘the greatest love story never told’.
She mused: ‘It became our Bible and we left it there in the studio and people would thumb through it.’
The show then cut to singers Ink and Faangs talking about their experience reading the book before cutting back to a disgruntled looking Ben recalling the time he realised Jen had shared the book with her friends.
He mused: ‘I came to the house one day and all the producers were round, I went down there and the book I had given her was there.
‘She was like “I’ve been reading and this is the inspiration, I’ve been showing them the book.” I was like “you’ve been showing all the musicians all those letters?” and they were like “yeah, we call you Pen Affleck!” I was like “oh my god…”‘
He continued: ‘I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s “the greatest love story never told” and if you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it!’
Jen then reasoned: ‘I wanted to share it with the world. This is about bringing the album to life in a different way.’
Really hammering home his feelings on the show, in the final moments of the documentary he confesses: ‘I don’t really love being in the making-of documentary about my personal life.
‘Which is why I’m so relieved that it’s not really… seems like I might be in this, but I’m not really.
‘I was worrying for no reason. The movie [This Is Me…Now: A Love Story] is not about me, it was about the ability to love yourself and that love story is a lot f***ing harder to find than Prince Charming.’
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They detailed the highs and lows of their rekindled romance in the documentary, yet while J Lo is hellbent on publicly declaring her love, she admits Ben is ‘uncomfortable’ being her muse
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Really hammering home his feelings on the show, in the final moments of the documentary he confesses: ‘I don’t really love being in the making-of documentary about my personal life’
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The couple’s love story started in 2002 when they dated while filming the movie Jersey Girl. They became engaged the following year but broke up in 2004 (pictured in 2003)
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Jennifer shelled out £16million ($20million) to fund the project, including This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, a semi autobiographical ‘musical rom-com action sci-fi’ documenting her love
Ben also revealed he initially asked his wife to keep their relationship offline when they decided to give things another ago.
‘Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’ the actor recalled.
‘Then I sort of realised it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, “Well, I don’t like the water.”‘
He continued: ‘We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.’
Ultimately, Jennifer respected his wishes, and has only posted a small handful of snaps featuring him, including a raunchy shirtless photo last Father’s Day and a sweet video of them singing Sam Cooke’s (What A) Wonderful World in the car on his birthday.
During the documentary, the mother-of-two acknowledged her husband’s discomfort with stepping in the spotlight as a couple after facing intense media scrutiny when they first dated in the Noughties.
‘I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this,’ she said.
‘But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I made…
‘He doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.’
