Casey Affleck jokes about ‘dysfunctional family’ as girlfriend defends him for skipping brother Ben’s wedding to Jennifer Lopez

Casey Affleck has joked about his “dysfunctional family”, as his girlfriend, Caylee Cowan, defended him for skipping his brother Ben Affleck’s second wedding to Jennifer Lopez over the weekend.

On Instagram on Sunday, the 47-year-old actor shared a throwback photo of himself with Lopez and Ben, as they walked handed in hand.

In the caption of the post, Casey went on to officially welcome the Marry Me star “the to family” and addressed the duo’s rekindling of their “old love,” as they were first called off their engagement in the early ‘00s before getting back together 17 years later.

“Good things are worth waiting for,” he wrote. “Here is to twists and turns, new beginnings, and finding new reservoirs of old love. Welcome to the family.”

“Get ready for some real dysfunction! Kidding. I am kidding,” he concluded. “Jen, you are a gem. We love you so much!!!”

The Manchester By the Sea star’s tribute comes after he revealed that he’d be missing out on his big brother’s wedding.

Paparazzi asked Casey why he wasn’t in Georgia for the Big Day and he said: “I have other things.”

A source close to the actor also told People that he couldn’t attend the event “because of family, parental obligations at home”. Casey has two sons, Indiana, 18, and Atticus, 14, who he shares with ex-wife Summer Phoenix.

In a since-deleted comment on Casey’s Instagram post, his girlfriend, Caylee Cowan, seemingly revealed more context about the situation and said that the actor missed the wedding in order to look after his youngest son.

“Hey, if you weren’t in town to take Atty to soccer practice, then who would’ve helped the kid who broke his arm?,” Cowan wrote, via Fox News. “You’re a good man. I love you.”

Lopez and Ben’s second wedding took place over the weekend at the the 50-year-old actor’s $8m Georgia estate, one month after the pair got legally married in Las Vegas.

The bride and groom were joined by the singer’s twins, Emme and Max, 14, who she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony, and the Gone Girl star’s children, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Sam, 11, who he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

Some other famous wedding guests included Matt Damon, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes.

Shortly before the ceremony, Ben’s mother, Christopher Anne Boldt, was taken to the hospital after she fell off a dock and cut her leg at her son’s Riceboro home. However, the injury was “not serious” and she received stitches.

Lopez opened up about her first wedding in July and addressed how “grateful” she was to be blending families with her new husband in her OnTheJLo blog.

“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love,’” she wrote at the time. “We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to.”

“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with,” she continued.