Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s romance enthralled a generation when they got engaged for the first time, in 2002. And it continues to do so two decades later, in the wake of their reunion and recent marriage.
Throughout the years—regardless of their relationship status—the two have said only wonderful things about one another and their deep connection. Ahead, see some of the sweetest comments the two stars have publicly made about each other.
2002
J.Lo gushes over then-fiancé Ben to Diane Sawyer.
“I’d probably say that he is brilliantly smart, loving, charming, affectionate. And I just admire him in every way. I respect him. I feel like he teaches me things,” Lopez said of Affleck on ABC’s Primetime. “We talked about how people kind of see him with one type of person and me with another type of person, and the two of us together is like ‘How did that happen?’ And how we’re probably more alike and from the same kind of background and, you know, same kind of upbringing and same kind of family and same kind of house.”
2008
Ben elaborates on the reason for his and J.Lo’s split on Live.
“I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible,” Affleck said during an appearance on the British TV series. “I don’t think either of us anticipated the degree to which it would take on a world of its own.”
2014
J.Lo opens up about her tough split from Ben on the Today show.
“It was probably my first big heartbreak,” Lopez revealed to Maria Shriver. “And to have one of my best friends who I’d known for years, who I actually love and did have chemistry with, come into my life and say, ‘I’m here’ … What you need to know is, nobody can save you or heal you. Only you can do that for you.”
Lopez added that external pressures eventually “destroyed” their well-publicized romance, but also incentivized them to invest more in their respective careers post-split. “It felt, at times, unfair, but neither one of us is that person to be like, ‘Woe is me,’” she said. “So we were like, ‘Well, we just got to dust it off and keep it moving.’ I think, in the weirdest way, that it motivated both of us to then become and do the things that we wound up doing. ... It fueled us in a weird way that we felt we had to prove ourselves again.”
2016
J.Lo reflects to Jess Cagle on her “genuine” connection to Ben.
“I think different time, different thing,” she told the People and Entertainment Weekly editor, adding, “Who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there.”
J.Lo roasts Ben’s phoenix tattoo on Watch What Happens Live.
“It’s awful! And I would tell him that,” she boldly told host Andy Cohen during her appearance. “What are you doing? It has too many colors! His tattoos always have too many colors. They shouldn’t be so colorful, you know what I mean? They should be, like, cooler.”
2018
J.Lo gets real with Vanity Fair about her post-split heartbreak.
“I lost my sense of self, questioned if I belonged in this business, thought maybe I did suck at everything, And my relationship [with Ben] self-destructed in front of the entire world,” she told the magazine in 2018. “It was a two-year thing for me until I picked myself up again.”
2020
Ben praises J.Lo’s star turn in Hustlers to the NYT.
“She’s the real thing,” Affleck said of Lopez’s performance in the 2019 film in a conversation with The New York Times (just a year before the pair’s rekindled romance was officially confirmed). He added, “I keep in touch periodically with her and have a lot of respect for her. How awesome is it that she had her biggest hit movie at 50? That’s fucking baller.”
2021
Ben talks his “beautiful” rekindled romance with J.Lo to the WSJ.
“I can say that it’s definitely beautiful to me,” he said to The Wall Street Journal. “And, you know, one of the things I really value across all facets of my life now is that it was handled in a way that reflected that.”
2022
J.Lo shares a heartfelt note celebrating her marriage to Ben and their special lasting romance.
“We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” Lopez wrote in a post for her newsletter, On the JLo, dedicated to their wedding.
“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love’. We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to,” she continued. “Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with. Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things-and worth waiting for.”
2023
Ben gushes over J.Lo’s talent on the red carpet.
“She’s brilliant,” he said during an interview with Entertainment Tonight for the red-carpet premiere of his film Air. “[She] helps me in every conceivable way.”
Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.
