Two years ago, then thrice-married Jennifer Lopez insisted on wearing white when she wed Ben Affleck in a Las Vegas drive-through chapel, nearly two decades after they cancelled their first wedding.
‘Love is beautiful. Love is kind,’ a starry-eyed Jennifer, then 52, assured fans. ‘And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.’
Yet love can also be fickle. This week, the singer and actress was pictured dressed all in white again — only this time she was out hunting for a new home in Beverly Hills, as rumours spread that she and Ben were heading for divorce.
Until Thursday when they arrived separately to watch Ben’s child, Fin, perform in a school play in Los Angeles, the celebrity couple known as ‘Bennifer’ haven’t been seen together since the end of March — when they were spotted having a tense-looking lunch in New York.
Affleck has reportedly now moved out of the sprawling £47 million mansion they bought only 11 months ago and is living in a house in Brentwood, the same Los Angeles neighbourhood where his ex-wife Jennifer Garner lives with their three children.
Two years ago, then thrice-married Jennifer Lopez insisted on wearing white when she wed Ben Affleck, nearly two decades after they cancelled their first wedding
While both he and Lopez are still pointedly wearing their wedding rings, celebrity gossip magazine In Touch Weekly reported this week that the actor-director had ‘hit a breaking point’ with Lopez. Pictured: The couple appear to be arguing at premiere of The Mother on May 10
Although some say it reflects his dislike of being snapped by paparazzi, Affleck has been looking so miserable for months that such pictures of him became an internet meme
Whether he was opening the car door for his wife and then angrily slamming it or sitting beside her holding her hand at the Grammys in February, he has had a face like thunder
Lopez was solo for her co-chairing duties at the glitzy Met Gala in New York on May 6, with many surprised that Affleck skipped the event
While both he and Lopez are still pointedly wearing their wedding rings, celebrity gossip magazine In Touch Weekly reported this week that the actor-director had ‘hit a breaking point’ with Lopez.
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‘The writing is on the wall — it’s over,’ said an insider. ‘They’re headed for a divorce — and for once [Ben’s] not to blame.’
On Thursday, Lopez fuelled the speculation by ‘liking’ an Instagram post about ‘broken relationships’ with no ‘integrity and respect’.
Other sources then subsequently admitted that the couple were having problems in their marriage but insisted they were not yet giving up on it. They are having marriage counselling but Affleck is reportedly sceptical as to whether it will work.
For the two egotistical stars, ‘everything is a fight’, observed someone who knows them, with the couple’s union seeming to be ‘held together by nothing but Scotch tape’.
‘They started having issues a few months ago as Jen had started ramping up work commitments and prepping for her tour,’ an insider told Us Weekly. ‘Jen is very focused on work. They are on two completely different pages most of the time.’
The pair were last seen together seven weeks ago, at the end of March in New York (pictured)
Ben Affleck was pictured on a solo outing without wife Jennifer Lopez amid rumors that the Hollywood power couple are headed for a split as they were last pictured together seven weeks ago
Lopez was spotted solo house-hunting in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, May 14
Meanwhile Affleck was on his own while appearing at The Roast of Tom Brady on May 5
On Thursday morning, Ben was seen driving near the home he is reportedly staying in once again without J-Lo
If it really is curtains for Bennifer, millions of romantically inclined fans around the world will be devastated. After all, what’s more charming than the idea of a couple, pulled apart by circumstance, getting a second chance at love years later.
It had all looked so promising, with Affleck reportedly going down on one knee and proposing for a second time while Lopez was relaxing in a bubble bath. Their secret Las Vegas ceremony was followed in August 2022 by a three-day wedding celebration on Affleck’s estate in Georgia, costing an estimated $400,000.
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Lopez had first revealed their relationship was back on in July 2021 when she posted online a picture of her kissing Affleck on her 52nd birthday (he’s three years her junior).
‘We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience, we’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things,’ she said a few months later, explaining why it would be different for the couple this time round.
‘It’s a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other.’
Noble sentiments, but they clash horribly with what unnamed ‘insiders’ have been saying this week.
‘He’s focusing on his work and his kids now,’ a source told In Touch. ‘Ben has already moved out and they’ll likely have to sell the dream house they spent two years searching for. They’ll never stop loving each other, but she can’t control him, and he can’t change her. There’s no way it could have lasted.’
Jennifer’s decision to release her $20 million Amazon Prime documentary, ‘The Greatest Love Story Never Told,’ in February, which chronicled her love story with Ben, seemingly put a strain on the pair’s marriage
That same month they were caught having yet another tense exchange. The couple were driving in Beverly Hills when they stopped at a red light and engaged in a heated conversation
The duo married in a Las Vegas ceremony in July 2022, followed by a lavish wedding at his Georgia estate on August 2022 (pictured)
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)
And why not? ‘Jen’s need to make their relationship so public and perfect often leaves Ben feeling overwhelmed and henpecked,’ the apparently well-informed informant added. ‘He just needs to be by himself sometimes, out of her shadow.’
While representatives of Affleck and Lopez have not yet commented officially on the claims, others have pointed to various aspects of the marriage that suggested it was in trouble. The couple weren’t together last weekend when Mother’s Day was celebrated in the US and Lopez had to tread the red carpet alone at New York’s supremely glitzy Met Gala earlier this month where she was the event’s co-chair.
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Affleck’s failure to accompany her to the Gala was certainly odd — for a fashionista like her it was one of the biggest nights of her life. Affleck’s people cited his filming commitments, but these hadn’t stopped him attending a party for American football star Tom Brady (without Lopez) the previous night.
An insider insisted Lopez wanted to give her husband ‘some breathing room’ and added: ‘Of course she was a little hurt, but she knows he loves her. He just needed a break from the red carpets and publicity that she craves.’
Although some say it reflects his dislike of being snapped by paparazzi, Affleck has been looking so miserable for months that such pictures of him became an internet meme.
Whether he was opening the car door for his wife and then angrily slamming it or sitting beside her holding her hand at the Grammys in February, he has had a face like thunder.
