Name: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez Age(s): 31 and 33 Nationality: American Claim to fame: Tinseltown’s most celebrated couple finally breaks up
EVER since the sudden cancellation of their wedding plans, just days before the D-day in September last year, amid a flurry of unprecedented media frenzy, there had been frequent reports of their break-up. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, Hollywood’s most scrutinized and feted celebrity union in recent history is now ‘history’. The couple has ended their 25-month relationship, it was announced by a spokesman for Lopez while Affleck’s publicist declined to comment.
The reason cited for the wedding’s cancellation had been the voracious media attention focused on them and that for their final break-up are said to be numerous. Some reports suggest that Lopez had grown frustrated with Affleck’s penchant for casino gambling and his hesitation in committing to marriage and a baby. Rumours surfaced about their relationship in recent weeks after Affleck travelled to Europe alone to promote his latest film Paycheck and appeared at the Sundance Film Festival alone.
Earlier last month, Lopez was spotted at a nightclub in the company of her ex-boyfriend Sean P. Diddy Combs. Both Combs and Lopez have denied recycling their relationship. The two dated from 1998 to 2001, with Lopez managing to squeeze in the hip-hop mogul between her two short-lived marriages.
J-Lo and Ben became friendly in December 2001, on the set of their movie Gigli — the commercial and critical movie mega-flop of 2003 — and said they began dating after Lopez split up with her second husband, Cris Judd in July 2002. She and dancer Judd had been married just nine months. The singer and actress earlier was married to chef Ojani Noa. Before presenting Jennifer with a 6.1-carat pink diamond Harry Winston engagement ring, Ben had dated the beautiful, Gwyneth Paltrow.
To add more cracks into the Jo-Ben split, the two — who were dubbed ‘Bennifer’ by the tabloids — are front-runners for worst on-screen love affair in their flop comedy Gigli. Affleck and Lopez’s mob-comedy that bombed badly at the box office had a leading nine nominations — among them worst picture and worst screen couple — for the Razzies, an annual spoof of the Academy Awards that mocks the year’s most awful movies.
Now Affleck and Lopez will again appear on screen together in Jersey Girl, due out in March in which Lopez plays Affleck’s wife. Affleck will next be seen as a solo act in the holiday-themed comedy, Surviving Christmas, and Lopez appears with Richard Gere in the Hollywood remake of the hit Japanese romance, Shall We Dance?
Lopez is one of a handful of stars to combine successfully a music and film career, and was the first Hispanic actress to command more than US$1 million a picture. This break-up is just another Hollywood drama that the tabloids are making the most of.
EVER since the sudden cancellation of their wedding plans, just days before the D-day in September last year, amid a flurry of unprecedented media frenzy, there had been frequent reports of their break-up. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, Hollywood’s most scrutinized and feted celebrity union in recent history is now ‘history’. The couple has ended their 25-month relationship, it was announced by a spokesman for Lopez while Affleck’s publicist declined to comment.
