Ben Affleck Shared Why He Felt a Bit ‘Conflicted’ About His Romance With Jennifer Lopez
Nearly two decades before Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez married, they were one of the biggest couples of the early 2000s. Affleck and Lopez attracted endless media attention, to the point where they had to consider how to keep the sound of news helicopters from interrupting their wedding. Affleck said he liked to keep a low profile. He shared why he still decided to enter into a relationship with one of the biggest stars of the era.
Ben Affleck shared why his relationship with Jennifer Lopez made him feel conflicted
Though Affleck was a major movie star, he didn’t particularly enjoy fame.
“I think humility is an underrated quality,” he told Vanity Fair in 2003. “No actor is god, no athlete is god, but you get deified. You’re portrayed in a way that makes you seem larger than life. It somehow f***s you up. Celebrity is corrupting and spoiling; it’s insidious and creepy. You act in these movies and you expose yourself to a degree where you can no longer relate to the world in a way that’s normal. The world has changed in the way it relates to you.”
With that sentiment in mind, interviewer Leslie Bennetts asked why he intended to marry someone as famous as Lopez. He said that while he knew it was a sacrifice, he was willing to make it for her.
“That occurred to me,” he said. “Why did I fall in love with this person? What does that say about me? Maybe I am conflicted, but I also have a contrary streak. I said, Just because I’m in this situation, I’m not going to behave any way differently than I ever did. Jennifer is a really wonderful, fabulous woman, smart and interesting. Spending time with her makes me a better person and a happier person. She impresses me every day. It feels better to me to be with her than without her. That’s why I made this decision, even if some other things have to be sacrificed.”
He said he would have fallen in love with her if they weren’t famous
Affleck and Lopez met on the set of their film, Gigli, but he said their romance wasn’t just an on-set fling. If their lives had taken different paths, he still believed they would have ended up together.
“This is something I would do if Jen was a teacher and I was working construction in Boston,” he said. “Jen and I want to get married for the reason everyone else does: we fell in love. I’m in love; I want to have a family; and she’s the only person I’ve ever met who made me entertain the thought of doing that.”
He said his father felt similarly about his mother.
“You know within 10 minutes of meeting Jen that she’ll be a good mother,” he said. “Though the heavens fall, she’ll be a good mother. My father said the same thing about my mother, who was a world-class-Olympian mother.”
Jennifer Lopez said the media attention eventually led to her breakup with Ben Affleck
Affleck said he was willing to sacrifice his privacy for a relationship with Lopez. Eventually, though, the constant attention wore the couple down.
“Ben and I, we broke up three days before our wedding,” Lopez said in the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told (via E! News). “We had a big wedding planned —14 ushers and bridesmaids — and three days before, we just crumbled under the pressure.”
Affleck agreed, noting that “the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life” led to their breakup. After years apart, the couple reunited in 2021.
