Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have had an on-and-off relationship in the past that has endeared their fans. Their latest break-up has not only resulted in a broken heart, but this is not the first time this loved-up couple has out rightly gone their separate ways in style. Lopez and Affleck began dating in 2002; they got engaged but later split in 2004 after shooting Gigli in 2001.

Rumours swirled at the time about why ‘Bennifer’ broke up, but Affleck later shared his perspective in an interview on The Howard Stern Show. He explained that media scrutiny played a huge role in their first split, accounting for “about 50 per cent” of the problems. Affleck said, “The idea that people hate you and they hate you together… And, ‘What the f**k are they doing together?’ I got f**king hurt and angry and felt like a fool.”

Despite this, the two stars found their way back to each other in 2022, nearly 20 years after their initial romance ended. Fans were thrilled when they rekindled their love, seeing it as a “second chance” for the pair.

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Bennifer’s ‘second chance’ romance fizzles out

Affleck, addressing the “second chance”, told WSJ Magazine in 2021, “I am very lucky in my life in that I have benefited from second chances, and I am aware that other people don’t even get first chances.”

“I’ve had second chances in my career. I’ve had second chances as a human being. Life is difficult, and we are always failing and hopefully learning from those failures.”

Unfortunately, their second chance did not last. On their one-year wedding anniversary, August 21, 2024, Lopez filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.”

While talking with Nicki Glaser for Interview Magazine, Lopez shared, “There’s times when I thought I figured it out and then life goes, ‘Let’s send you another thing and see if you fall for it. Let’s see if you really have learned that lesson.’ And I hadn’t.”

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“I understand that now in a much deeper way, which doesn’t mean that I won’t make mistakes in the future, but again, when your whole house blows up, you’re standing there in the rubble going, ‘How do I not ever let that happen again?’”

“And then you start examining it little by little saying, ‘Okay, I did this, this was my part in it, this was what I should have seen early on, this is what I didn’t look at’,” she said.