Jennifer Lopez‘s new movie and album, This Is Me… Now is bringing up all sorts of old memories when it comes to her romance with Ben Affleck since that’s the core focus of latest project. It was so hard to avoid Bennifer in the early aughts landscape, and over the last two decades, memories have faded about their canceled wedding.
Many fans forgot that the couple stayed together after the nuptials were called off — they waited an excruciating four months before they called it quits. Now, she’s clarified the timeline in a new Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe. “We didn’t break up right at that moment. It happened over the series of the next few months,” Lopez recalled about the September 2003 wedding that didn’t happen. In a statement to People, the couple blamed the tabloid frenzy on the postponement.
“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.”
The delay in becoming Mr. and Mrs. caused all sort of inner turmoil for both of them. “What it did was it casted doubt in me ― and both of us ― about what our relationship was and where it was going,” Lopez noted. “And I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life … But it didn’t feel like we were going to make it. And so, it scared me.” Lopez and Affleck never reached a peaceful resolution to their struggles at the time, and she found it “very hard” to let go “of somebody that you truly love 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. We just weren’t mature enough in that way,” she continued. It took until January 2004 for them to realize that they needed to go their separate ways. “And we went, and we both tried and found other people and had beautiful children, and had other families, and even had other relationships after that,” Lopez said. She admitted that she took the time to do “a lot of work” on herself and that’s when she realized she was happy alone.
“I’m chill, I love my life, 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,” Lopez divulged. “And funnily enough, he said he had had the same type of experience.”
Before you go, click here to see a complete timeline of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s relationship.
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