Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have officially called it quits, once again.
Lopez filed for divorce from the Oscar-winning actor and director of “Argo” in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times. The couple’s second anniversary was July 17 in Nevada, and the filing coincides with the second anniversary of their wedding ceremony in Georgia.
Representatives for Lopez and Affleck did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment.
Lopez is not saying whether she and Affleck had a prenuptial agreement, according to TMZ, which first reported the stars' split on Tuesday.
Signs that the couple was headed for failure had been abundant in recent months: People magazine reported on May 17 that they were living apart, and on May 22 an “exclusive source” reported that their marriage was “not in the best place right now.”
A disconnect between Lopez and Affleck’s approach to life was mentioned on more than one occasion. A source told People in May that “Ben hates all the attention and it makes him very uncomfortable” and that “Jennifer has always had a different approach.” A week into June, TMZ reported that the eight-figure Affleck-Lopez mansion and its 24 bathrooms had been quietly on the market for a couple of weeks and that a divorce was “imminent.” The home went up for public sale in July.
Meanwhile, Affleck purchased a $20.5 million Los Angeles home (which some said could easily be converted into a bachelor pad) last month, on Lopez's 55th birthday.
The Fourth of July holiday weekend saw the two on opposite ends of the country, according to People: Affleck in Los Angeles, Lopez in the Hamptons in New York.
Lopez’s ninth and most recent album, “This Is Me … Now,” and its accompanying film, released earlier this year, made a big deal of her rekindled relationship with Affleck. The album’s summer tour was canceled before it began amid rumors of poor ticket sales and relationship troubles. Lopez said she was “devastated” by the cancellation. “Jennifer is taking some time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” her fan newsletter said.
The couple met in 2002 on the set of “Gigli,” when Lopez was still married to her second husband, Cris Judd. JLo filed for divorce two days after she was caught kissing Affleck at his surprise birthday party.
Affleck proposed in November 2002 with a $2.5 million pink diamond, but the couple postponed their wedding in September, the day they were due to walk down the aisle, citing the media hype surrounding their relationship. In January, it was reported that “Bennifer” was officially over.
They spent the next 18 years apart with different partners: Lopez was married to singer Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2014 and was engaged to former New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez from 2019 to 2021. Affleck, meanwhile, was married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018; the parents of three children have remained friends and even co-parented with Lopez, who has twins with Anthony.
But you can’t fight fate or power couple status. Affleck and Lopez were spotted together again in 2021 and announced their second engagement in 2022 after he proposed in a bubble bath with a giant green ring. They tied the knot in Las Vegas later that year and seemed to enjoy embodying the best of early 2000s nostalgia before divorce rumors began to spread this spring, just before Lopez canceled her summer tour.
“We lost our sense of self and had to separate because we didn’t know how to survive,” Lopez told Variety in February, speaking of her 2004 split from Affleck under extreme media scrutiny. “I had to figure out myself and he had to figure out himself.”
It seems that they have finally managed to resolve things together. And the answer is: “separately.”
Times Fast Break intern Sandra McDonald contributed to this report.
