Although she and Ben Affleck ended up getting married in 2022, Jennifer Lopez revealed more details about why their relationship didn’t work out nearly 20 years earlier.
While speaking to Zane Lowe during an Apple Music interview, Lopez spoke about how things between her and Affleck took a turn not long before their 2003 wedding.
The couple had issued a statement the day before their original September 2003 calling off the nuptials.
“Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date,” the statement read. “When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realized that something was awry. We began to feel that the spirit of what should have been the happiest day of our lives could be compromised. We felt what should have been a joyful and sacred day could be spoiled for us, our families, and our friends.”
However, although Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck stayed together to repair the relationship so they could finally get married, it just wasn’t going to work.
“We didn’t break up right at that moment,” Lopez said about postponing the wedding. “It happened over the series of the next few months.”
Jennifer Lopez stated that postponing the wedding had cast doubt in her about the relationship and where it was going. “I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life,” she said. “I knew that. But it didn’t feel like we were going to make it. And so, it scared me.”
Jennifer Lopez Said It Was a ‘Hard Moment’ Letting Ben Affleck Go
While continuing to speak about her original split with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez stated it was a very hard moment to let the Good Will Hunting star go.
“It was a very sad moment of letting go of somebody that you truly love,” she explained. “Because you just can’t figure it out. You just don’t have the capacity and the ability at that moment, emotionally, to figure it out.”
Jennifer Lopez also said that she and Ben Affleck were just not mature enough at the time. “Even though he was in his late twenties, I was in my early thirties, it still, it wasn’t…” she continued. “We weren’t ready to deal with and look at each other and go, what we have is real, we need to buckle down, we need to do some work.”
Jennifer Lopez explained that she was able to move on from the relationship. “I’m chill, I love my life,” she said. “I have this amazing career that I’ve built for myself, I have these amazing children… I have great friends, that’s when he showed back up.”