Rumours swirl around Ben Affleck & J Lo
JLo and Ben Affleck have been hanging out again – is there something they’re not telling us?
WHEN you’re a Hollywood A-lister attention comes with the territory: where you go so do the paparazzi. Especially when you have a love-life as tumultuous as Ben Affleck’s.
And that swarm only intensifies when people get hold of a juicy story. Like recently when reports surfaced that the actor has been “hanging out” with his famous ex-fiancée, Jennifer Lopez.
Photographers swamped Ben and his co-parenting ex-wife, Jennifer Garner (49), when they recently took their nineyear-old son, Samuel, to swimming practice. Things got tense when one of the snappers yelled out to Ben, “Are the rumours about JLo true?”
But rather than employ his usual tactic – simply pretending the paparazzi don’t exist – the Batman star lost his cool and tossed his drink in the photographer’s direction.
Still, you can’t blame the pic people – not when there’s something potentially big brewing. Then Ben does something that makes many a fan wonder if there’s some fire fuelling the smoke swirling around JLo’s swanky Los Angeles pad.
Ben has been spotted visiting his famous ex’s home several times recently.
Apparently, you can’t simply drive to JLo’s home and ring the bell. So Ben was shuttled back and forth between the swanky Hotel Bel-Air and the Dinero singer’s luxury property, where he reportedly spent several hours.
The 48-year-old actor was snapped as he exited a white Escalade SUV that reportedly belongs to Jennifer. She was later seen sitting in the same white SUV sporting aviator sunglasses.
The famous exes, nicknamed “Bennifer” in their glitzy heyday, were one of the hottest couples of the early 2000s until it all went pear-shaped, so naturally the sighting has had fans in a frenzy.
And let’s be honest, JLo (51) has been fanning those flames in her own way.
During her performance at Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World – just days after their clandestine meeting – she sang the Neil
Diamond classic Sweet Caroline as a tribute to her mother, Guadalupe Rodríguez.
But on-the-ball fans pointed out the song is also a Boston Red Sox anthem – and Ben, a Boston native and die-hard Red Sox fan, appeared at the concert immediately following her performance.
Her set also included the pop anthem Ain’t Your Mama, which includes the lyrics, “We used to be crazy in love / Can we go back to how it was.”
Intriguing, isn’t it?
THE reunion r umo u r s come just weeks after JLo and former baseball player Alex Rodriguez (45) called off their engagement.
Ben is newly single too, having split from Ana de Armas (33) in January.
So are the exes getting back together again – or is it just a case of old pals shooting the breeze?
According to a wellplaced source, they’re “strictly friends”. “But there’s no such thing as never, especially in Hollywood, so it’s possible something could be rekindled.”
Ben and JLo met on the set of the movie Gigli in late 2001 and the romance between the velvety-skinned diva and the Hollywood hunk captured the attention of the world. Everything they did was big news, from Ben’s cameo in her Jenny from the Block music video to the pinkhued $2,5-million (then about R20m) engagement ring he splurged on for her.
But the pair sensationally called off their 2003 wedding days before they were set to walk down the aisle.
“Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we’ve decided to postpone the date,” they said in a statement.
“When we f ound our selves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realised something was awry. We began to feel that the spirit of what should’ve been the happiest day of our lives could be compromised.”
By January 2004 they’d officially split. At the time, JLo called the break-up “probably my first big heartbreak”.
In an interview with Vanity Fair she spoke about the “self-destructive” relationship and how it affected her.
“I lost my sense of self, questioned if I belonged in this business, thought maybe I did suck at everything,” she said.
“And my relationship [with Ben] self-destructed in front of the entire world. It was a two-year thing for me until I picked myself up again.”
The mom of two – she has twins Emme and Maximilian (13) with ex-husband Marc Anthony – also spoke about how her insecurities contributed to their split.
“Men in their twenties are very confident and cocky, and women are super-insecure,” she told W Magazine in 2017. “And then it slips – men get superinsecure and women get comfortable in their own skin in a way that makes them more beautiful.
“I never appreciated my body or my looks when I was in my twenties. Now I’m like, ‘Look at me! Look at you!’ Not in a conceited or arrogant way – I just appreciated myself in a way that I didn’t when I was that age.”
And it seems Ben shares that appreciation. He gushed over his ex to InStyle magazine when JLo graced the cover of its May 2021 issue.
“I thought I had a good work ethic, but I was completely humbled and blown away by what she was committed to doing day in and day out,” he said. “She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business.”
He also marvelled over her agelessness. “Where are you keeping the fountain of youth? Why do you look the same as you did in 2003?”
Jennifer responded with flattery of her own – and a plug for her cosmetics range. “I don’t have any [beauty] secrets except JLo Beauty. Ben is funny! He still looks pretty good too.”
BEN has been open about keeping in touch with the singer-actress over the years. “I touch base. I respect her. I like her,” he said in an interview. “We have the kind of relationship where there’ll be an email saying, ‘Oh, your movie looks great’.”
He even showed his support for her last year when he lamented she wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for her role in the movie Hustlers.
“She should’ve been nominated. She’s the real thing,” he told The New York Times.
Insiders claim the mother of Ben’s kids, – whom he started dating eight months after splitting from JLo – is chilled about his reconnection with Jennifer 1.0.
“Jen [Garner] isn’t bothered by Ben hanging out with JLo or anyone else. She wants what’s best for him,” a source says.
Jennifer and Ben were married from 2005 until 2015 and have three kids – Violet (15), Seraphina (12), and Samuel.
“What matters most to her is Ben being a great dad,” the insider continues. “They’ve been in a good groove when it comes to co-parenting and their kids’ happiness is Jen’s main priority.”
‘THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS NEVER, SO IT’S POSSIBLE SOMETHING COULD BE REKINDLED’