Jennifer Lopez Reveals Reason for Ben Affleck Breakup, Why He Didn’t Want Romance on Social Media

Fans of the couple now have an insight into the private lives of Bennifer, including the reason the pair broke down in the first place.

“Ben and I, we broke up three days before our wedding,” Lopez recalled in her new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, about their first engagement.

“We had a big wedding planned — 14 ushers and bridesmaids — and three days before, we just crumbled under the pressure.”

The first time Affleck and Lopez were engaged was in 2002, they were the biggest couple in Hollywood at the time, with paparazzi chasing after pictures of their every move.

However, it got all too much for the pair with Affleck revealing in the documentary that the reason behind the split was “the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life.”

The pair did get their fairytale ending in the end, albeit 20 years later. The couple reconnected in 2021, got engaged in April 2022 and finally married on July 16, 2022.

“For all those years, it was really hard because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life, I felt like I lost the best friend that I ever had,” Lopez said of their time apart. “And I couldn’t talk for so many years, and that was the hardest part.”

The Amazon MGM studios documentary, directed by Jason Bergh, is just one part of the three-part homage to Lopez and Affleck’s love life. There is also a Dave Meyers directed film, This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, which goes behind the scenes of Lopez’s new album, This Is Me…Now. And, of course, the album itself.

Initially, Affleck was critical of the decision to share their relationship on social media and even a three-part project, calling their private moments “sacred”.

In fact, Affleck had one request when he and Lopez rekindled their love story.

“Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,'” the actor and director said in the documentary. “Then I sort of realized 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.'”

Luckily, Lopez doesn’t have many followers … just a casual 235 million.

“I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this,” she said in the film. “But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I made … he doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.”

Since Affleck’s initial critiques, the couple have found a middle ground, with Lopez occasionally sharing a photo or two of their relationship online.

“We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise,” he said in the documentary.

Lopez and Affleck have blended their families, since they both moved on with separate people after their initial split in 2003. Lopez is mom to 15-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Meanwhile, Affleck has three children — Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 11 — with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.