Jennifer Lopez reflects on pressures which led to Ben Affleck split
Jennifer Lopez has spoken out about the events which led to the initial breakup of her relationship with Ben Affleck.
The On The Floor hitmaker and the Gone Girl star experienced intense scrutiny when they first got engaged in 2002.
However, unable to cope with the pressures, Jennifer and Ben sadly called off their engagement in 2004.
17 years later, they rekindled their romance and subsequently tied the knot in August of last year, becoming a blended family with five children between them.
Now, after celebrating her first wedding anniversary with Ben, Jennifer has opened up about how the intense public pressures have had lasting effects on her.
In an interview with Variety, the 54-year-old was asked about her feelings towards putting her love life in the spotlight again.
“As artists, we have to follow our heart and this is me following my heart and doing something that maybe everybody didn’t think was the best idea, but I had to do it,” she explained.
Jennifer then went on to candidly admit that both herself and Ben continue to struggle with the aftermath of their first engagement, stating: “We both have PTSD”.
“But we’re older now. We’re wiser. We also know what’s important, what’s really important in life, and it’s not so much what other people think. It’s about being true to who you are,” she detailed further.
In a conversation with Vogue shortly after she tied the knot with Ben last year, the Hustlers actress reflected on what led to their initial split 18 years previously.
“We were just living out loud, and it turned out to really bite us. There was a lot underneath the surface there, people not wanting us to be together, people thinking I wasn’t the right person for him,” Jennifer confessed in November 2022.
“People in my life know that he was a very, very special person in my life. When we reconnected, those feelings for me were still very real,” she added.
