A video of Jennifer Lopez finally addressing the speculation that her and Ben Affleck’s marriage is over has gone viral online.
Several outlets have reported that Affleck and Lopez—who called off their first engagement in 2003 and reconciled in 2021—are living separately after tying the knot in 2022. Until the duo reunited to attend Affleck’s child Fin’s school play, the A-listers hadn’t been photographed together since March.
During a Wednesday press conference in Mexico for her new Netflix film Atlas, a reporter asked Lopez to confirm if the rumors about the split were real.
“You know better than that,” Lopez responded. Her co-star, Simu Liu, could be heard in the background, jumping to her defense. “OK, we’re not doing that,” he said, before adding: “Come on, don’t come in here with that energy, please. Thank you so much.” Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Lopez for comment Thursday.
A clip of the exchange was posted to the X account (formerly Twitter) belonging to Pop Base, an entertainment news page.
“Jennifer Lopez shuts down reporter who asked about Ben Affleck divorce rumors,” the caption reads. At the time of writing, it had been viewed more than 150,000 times.
People took to the comments to defend Lopez, as well as applaud how she handled the situation.
John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“She didn’t need to say anything because it’s not our effin’ business. Let them deal with their personal lives privately. Leave them alone!” one person wrote.
“Regardless of anyone’s opinion on her, it’s nobody’s business what goes on in her marital life and she doesn’t owe anyone any kind of explanation about it. It’s also so tacky and distasteful to be asking that in a press junket for a movie like she’s there to promote a film not herself,” posted another.
“As she should. What a tasteless reporter,” someone else commented.
A fourth person added: “Sometimes shutting them down is necessary.”
Another wrote about the complexity of the situation: “I feel like it’s a double-edged sword, on one hand Jennifer did put out 3 projects all about her relationship with Ben but on the other hand we aren’t in the early 2000s anymore and those are questions you just don’t ask in 2024.”
However, other social-media users wrote that Lopez’s response confirms the rumors, even though neither she nor Affleck has confirmed them.
“So It’s true bc [because] she had the opportunity to shut it down … JLO can’t keep a man,” one person said.
“If truly nothing was wrong she would’ve just said we are fine,” a different X user wrote, while another added: “That means yes.”
Amid the split speculation, Lopez appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where she shared the story about the first engagement ring she received from Affleck in the early 2000s.
Recalling the time she met Barbra Streisand on the red carpet, Lopez said to Kimmel that the legendary singer had commented on her rock from her Oscar-winning husband.
“She kinda was like asking to look at my engagement ring at the time, that Ben had given me years ago,'” the “Jenny From the Block” artist said, adding that Streisand commented: “‘So, that’s a big diamond.'”
“And I’m, like, ‘Yes it is,'” Lopez remembered telling Streisand.
Lopez’s original engagement ring from Affleck was a 6.1-carat pink diamond from celebrity jeweler Harry Winston. When the Oscar winner popped the question to Lopez for the second time nearly 20 years later, he gifted her an 8.5-carat rock with a green diamond stone in the center. The band is also engraved with the phrase “Not. Going. Anywhere,” which is how Affleck would sign off his emails with Lopez after they reconnected.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.