How Jennifer Lopez Made Sure She and Marc Anthony Avoided Becoming the Media’s New Bennifer
Jennifer Lopez learned a lot about celebrity relationships after her high-profile fling with Ben Affleck in the 2000s. Sometime after their break up, Lopez dated Marc Anthony, and they didn’t receive the same level of media attention. However, that was perhaps because Lopez learned how to operate in the public eye when dating another high-profile celebrity.
What Jennifer Lopez did with Marc Anthony that she couldn’t do with Ben Affleck
Lopez and Affleck only initially dated for two years. But thanks to media attention it quickly became a frenzied romance. The pair’s relationship wasn’t good for their public image. At the time, the growing consensus was that they relished the overwhelming attention they received. The negative publicity took its toll after a while, playing a huge part in breaking up Lopez and Affleck in 2004.
In a resurfaced interview with People, before Lopez and Affleck reunited, the Atlas star wondered how their relationship would’ve gone without the constant scrutiny.
“We didn’t try to have a public relationship. We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like ‘Oh my God.’ It was just a lot of pressure,” she said.
However, just a few months after Lopez and Affleck broke up in January 2004, Lopez started dating Anthony sometime later that same year. Lopez and Anthony moved a lot more quickly, with the two tying the knot not too long after their romance began.
But Lopez and Anthony came up with a new golden rule to prevent the same thing from happening to them.
“We established early on that our relationship was not for public consumption,” Lopez once said according to Irish Examiner. “When we’re out there, it’s because it’s part of our work, but you won’t catch us hanging at some random place with paparazzi following us because we don’t let them.”
“And we have a tight circle of friends,” she added. “We don’t have people calling the photographers saying, Marc and Jennifer are coming here.’”
Jennifer Lopez turned to Marc Anthony after her breakup from Ben Affleck
Lopez confided that being with Anthony was her strong reaction to breaking up with Affleck. In her book True Love, Lopez shared that her usual way of dealing with heartache was to enter another relationship.
“I sought out comfort in another person, tried to find someone who could make me feel loved and wanted in my loneliest hour,” Lopez said.
For the Hustlers star, Anthony might’ve been someone who came at the right time. But that didn’t necessarily mean he was the right person for Lopez. After reflecting on her marriage with Anthony, she felt she knew all along that the marriage wasn’t meant to last.
“Thinking back, maybe deep down I knew that this was a Band-Aid on the cut, that my wound hadn’t been stitched or healed,” she said. “But I pushed all that to the back of my mind. Because life takes unpredictable twists and turns, right? And you’ve just got to go with what you feel is best in the moment.”
Jennifer Lopez shared there was no chance she’d get back together with Marc Anthony
Lopez and Affleck shocked the world when they reunited in July 2021. Their summer romance became something more when they finally made it to the altar in 2022. Although Lopez gave Affleck another try after their break up so many years ago, it seems unlikely she’d do the same with Anthony.
“Marc and I are good how we are right now. You know what I mean? There’s a reason we’re not together,” Lopez explained to ET back in 2017. “But we’re great friends. We’re parents together. We’re even working on a Spanish album together.”
Lopez felt she and Anthony worked better as collaborators than as lovers.
“That has been even better for us — we met working,” she added. “That’s where we’re really magical when we’re on stage together and stuff like that. That’s where we’re good, so we leave it there.”
