Bennifer 101: A Timeline of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s Relationship

After two years’ worth of dodging paparazzi on their date nights—and postponing their September 2003 wedding in Santa Barbara due to the “excessive media attention” surrounding it—Bennifer officially called it quits, with Lopez’s press rep (who deserves hazard pay, by the way) stating simply: “Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck. At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy.” Mere months later, the two went on to promote their film Jersey Girl together, which is a level of “being civil to your ex” that most can only dream of.

Act V: Jen and Ben start hanging out again (May 2021)

I’ve seen a lot of amazing things over the course of my life, but I remain eternally grateful that I was a pop-culture reporter when the news broke that Lopez and Affleck had been spotted together near Affleck’s home in Montana in 2021. By this point—17 long years after calling off their engagement—both had become parents, gone through divorces, and entered high-profile new relationships: Lopez, with baseball player Alex Rodriguez; Affleck, with actress Ana de Armas.

In 2021, shortly after Rodriguez and de Armas had exited the picture, Lopez and Affleck got in touch again over email. “I never shied away from the fact that for me, I always felt like there was a real love there, a true love there,” Lopez told Vogue in her December 2022 cover story. “People in my life know that [Affleck] was a very, very special person in my life. When we reconnected, those feelings for me were still very real.”