Jennifer Lopez opens up about her latest album and how her rekindled relationship with husband Ben Affleck inspired a truly creative project
WORDS: SALLY JAMES AND LESLEY JONES
THE LO-DOWN
Jennifer Lopez is in love and wants the world to know it. And as one half of Hollywood’s hottest couple, her “second chance” romance with husband Ben Affleck is truly the stuff of showbiz fairy tales. “I’m a hopeless romantic,” laughs the 54-year-old, as she reflects on the relationship which ground to a halt almost 20 years ago. It was rekindled after the superstar couple went their separate ways and embarked on other high-profile marriages.
Jennifer and Ben’s great love story began in 2002 when they met on the set of movie romcom Gigli. J.Lo was still married to her second husband, Cris Judd, at the time but by their divorce the following year, the newly christened “Bennifer” were official; the pair were soon engaged, with Jen sporting a six-carat pink diamond solitaire ring.
At the time, she wrote a song, Dear Ben, for Affleck, telling the press, “I really felt like when I met Ben, ‘Okay, this is it.’” And there were clues about the intensity of their relationship as she sang, “You’re perfect. I just can’t control myself, I can’t be with no one else. I write this song to let you know that you will always be to me my lust, my love, my man, my child, my friend and my king.”
But the romance hit the rocks in 2004, with the couple citing intense media attention as one of the reasons for their difficulties.
Now, with the launch of her new album and an accompanying “cinematic experience” movie that gives an insider view of her eventful love life, J.Lo is almost incredulous that fate should have brought them back together. “This Is Me... Now captured that moment when I really wasn’t sure I would find this kind of love again,” she says, remembering their on-off relationship timeline.
“Then it did happen again and it’s even more mind-blowing and better than it ever was the first time around.”
In the years since Jen and Ben’s original break-up, both went on to tie the knot with other celebrities, with J.Lo having a 10-year marriage to Latin salsa superstar Marc Anthony and welcoming their twins Max and Emme, now 15.
The pop and movie icon has had four marriages in total, having previously been wed to actor Ojani Noa in the 90s before tying the knot with choreographer Cris Judd in 2001 in what wo
