More than two decades after they first got together and then broke up, Bennifer is going all out again, but they're dealing with some residual effects from their first try. Jennifer Lopez told Variety in a Dec. 21 interview that she "suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder" during her first relationship with husband Ben Affleck, which lasted from 2002 to early 2004.
J.Lo is gearing up to release her new album , This Is Me...Now , which will be accompanied by a movie about her and Affleck's decades-long love story. In an interview with Variety , she acknowledged the risks of the film and said "we both suffered from PTSD" caused by the media scrutiny of their first engagement, which ultimately led to them canceling their plans wedding, and then called off the relationship altogether.
"But we're older now. We're wiser," she stressed. "We also know what's really important in life, not what other people think. It's about being true to yourself."
Given their history, some members of J.Lo's team didn't think it was a good idea to focus her relationship on her next project, but she moved on. "As artists, we have to follow our heart, and that's me following my heart and doing something that maybe everyone doesn't think is the best idea, but I have to do it," she said.
Will Bennifer collaborate again?
While "This Is Me... Now" is J.Lo's project, the follow-up to her 2003 album "This Is Me...Then ," which was partly about her first love with Affleck, this time Their love story is actually told from both of their points of view. Affleck co-wrote parts of the film with his wife.
Interviewed by Entertainment Tonight On December 5, J.Lo said that she and Affleck "work really well together." “No one knows my story better than he does,” she said. “So we were able to sit down and really dig into it in a way that I don’t think any other writer could have done with me.”
This is the first time the couple has worked together since their reconciliation, but it may not be the last. In 2003, Bennifer co-starred in Geely , which was a critical and box-office failure and is widely considered one of the worst movies ever made.
Despite the backlash, J.Lo publicly stated in 2022 that she would be making a sequel to Gilly , and even revealed the possibility of reuniting with Affleck on screen. "We talk," she told Variety in 2022. "We love being together and working together, so, yeah, you never know."