The A-list couple tried to reignite their romance after nearly twenty years of marriage in 2022.
After two years of marriage, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck on Tuesday, ending a romantic history spanning decades that gave rise to the well-known portmanteau “Bennifer.”
According to court documents, Ms. Lopez petitioned the L.A. County Superior Court to terminate the couple’s marriage. The application was filed on the second anniversary of the couple’s extravagant wedding ceremony at Mr. Affleck’s Georgia house. TMZ was the first to report on it.
Requests for response from Ms. Lopez’s and Mr. Affleck’s representatives were not immediately answered.
Pop culture has been fascinated by the on-again, off-again relationship between actress and singer Ms. Lopez, 55, and actor and director Mr. Affleck, 52, since the early 2000s.
While collaborating on the romantic comedy “Gigli” in 2003, the couple started dating. Despite receiving negative reviews, the stars’ romance emerged as “the summer’s most watched romance,” per a New York Times article published that year. They announced their engagement in 2002, but due to the media craze around it, they decided to put off their wedding until the next year.
After their breakup, the two entered into new relationships: Mr. Affleck wed the actress Jennifer Garner in 2005, while Ms. Lopez wed the singer Marc Anthony in 2004. (Divorces followed for both.)
When news broke in the spring of 2021 that Ms. Lopez and Mr. Affleck were once again dating, tabloids lit up. The celebrities got married in a midnight ceremony in July 2022 in Las Vegas, complete with a pink Cadillac convertible. In August, they celebrated in Georgia with family and friends. Ms. Lopez wore a Ralph Lauren gown and a long veil.
In her newsletter, Ms. Lopez stated, “We did it.” “Love is a lovely thing. Love is compassionate. It appears that love is tolerant. twenty years of patience.
Author Jennifer Weiner stated in an Opinion piece for The New York Times that for some fans, Bennifer 2.0 symbolized a hope of reconciling with the one who got away. Their love affair was
“a pandemic gift that kept on giving, for romantics and celebrity gossip addicts alike.”
But this year, the relationship came under scrutiny again. In May, Ms. Lopez abruptly canceled her summer tour, to which ticket sales had been iffy. “Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” Live Nation said in a statement. In July, E! News reported that the pair’s mansion in Beverly Hills had been listed for $68 million.
Ms. Lopez has often spoken at length about the relationship; Mr. Affleck has tended to be less vocal. He briefly appeared in Ms. Lopez’s “This Is Me … Now: A Love Story” movie, which was released on Amazon in February. He was a larger presence in its accompanying documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told.”
“I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told,” Mr. Affleck said in the documentary, describing their relationship. “And if you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”
