Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck divorce: Inside Bennifer’s doomed romance

After two years of marriage and a myriad of swirling separation rumours, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are confirmed to have broken up (again) after the “Let’s Get Loud” singer personally filed for divorce in the Los Angeles Superior Court – without an attorney.

Speculation has been rife that Lopez and Affleck called it quits long before the Hustlers star filed: The couple hadn’t been photographed together for more than 40 days. Affleck was seen repeatedly without his wedding ring. He didn’t go to J-Lo’s Bridgerton themed birthday. Their joint $68m Beverly Hills mansion was listed for sale. Affleck got a “mid-life crisis” mohawk.

In court, the date of Bennifer’s separation was officially listed as 26 April. More notably, the filing took place on Tuesday, 20 August – the exact two year anniversary of the couple’s mammoth wedding ceremony in Savannah, Georgia, according to TMZ.

As more head-tilting details emerge about J-Lo and Ben Affleck’s long-suspected split, here’s a look back at each stage of Bennifer’s rekindled romance…

In April 2021, Lopez announced she had split from her former professional baseball player partner, Alex Rodriguez. That same month, Affleck gave InStyle glowing quotes about the singer, saying he had been “humbled and blown away” by her talent and determination throughout her career.

J-Lo and Ben Affleck fans celebrated a month later when the couple were seen holding hands while “returning from a holiday in Big Sky, Montana” – almost two decades after calling off their first engagement, postponing their wedding, and breaking up in 2004.

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A year on from rekindling their romance, Lopez announced she and Affleck were engaged for a second time after being spotted by photographers wearing a huge diamond ring.

The singer told PEOPLE at the time that her and Affleck’s reunion was a “beautiful outcome” and comes at a time “in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other, and respect each other”.

Three months after their engagement, Lopez and Affleck eloped to The Little White Chapel in Las Vegas to tie the knot. J-Lo wrote in her newsletter at the time: “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”

Weeks after they first tied the knot in Vegas, Affleck and Lopez hosted a huge wedding ceremony and party at the actor’s $8m home in Savanna, Georgia. J-Lo wore a Ralph Lauren gown with an approximately 20-foot-long train and later told subscribers of her newsletter: “Some old wounds were healed that day and the weight of the past finally lifted off our shoulders. Full-circle – and not at all the way we planned it. Better.”

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In 2024, J-Lo released a new album This is Me…Now, which was released alongside a self-financed experimental film, This is Me… Now: A Love Story and an Amazon Prime documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.

The latter featured clips of Affleck admitting aspects of being with Lopez that made him uncomfortable, which prompted wider divorce rumours.

“Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’” Affleck revealed. “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.’ We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.”

Amid ongoing divorce speculation, Affleck purchased a $20m house in Los Angeles in July – just weeks after listing his 12-bedroom Beverly Hills home with Lopez for $68m.

Now routinely referred to in reports as an “estranged couple”, Affleck and Lopez have not been publicly sighted together for four months. Fans also noted the couple had spent the Fourth of July and their wedding anniversary apart.

For her 55th birthday, J-Lo threw a huge Bridgerton themed party in the Hamptons, which Affleck did not attend. On the same day, the Air director was seen on the opposite coast in Los Angeles – without his wedding ring.

Lopez later told her Instagram followers she had “shed some tears” over the past year of her life and thanked them for their support.

On 20 August, Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after two years of marriage. According to TMZ sources, the couple do not have a prenuptial agreement in place, meaning earnings from the past two years could be considered community property during the divorce proceedings.

The Independent has contacted Lopez and Affleck’s representatives for comment.