All the Wild Moments You Forgot About in Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s Relationship

Bennifer stans, rise!

In case you missed it, we’ve traveled back in time to 2002, an iconic era when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were together and starring in the critically-never-acclaimed-not-even-once film Gigli together. And by that I mean: Bennifer has staged a zombielike return from the ashes of their relationship, gotten ENGAGED, and can’t stop making out on yachts and random street corners.

It’s all just frankly HAPPENING, and obviously no one is okay, not even close, but in order to fully understand how meaningful this reunion is, we have to go back. Back to the beginning. Because lest you forget, these two have a lot of history! Behold, a hefty timeline of Bennifer’s relationship—plus the relationships they’ve had in between—in reverse chronological order (so all the juiciest updates are at the top)!

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July 2022

Jen and Ben are spotted holding hands and looking in love and whatnot while shopping for luxury cars, as ya do.

And then, surprise! They get married in Vegas.

J.Lo also changes her name, officially becoming “Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.”

June 2022

J.Lo gets a super-cute manicure in honor of her and Ben’s ’ship. Celebrity manicurist Tom Bachik completed the set and posted it to his Instagram with the caption, “If you know…then you know. 🏹 Jen and Ben forever #couplesgoals for the boss @jlo #nailsbytombachik 💅🏼🔥.”

Ben also makes a cameo appearance in Jen’s doc Halftime. The film took us back to the early 2000s, when beyond cringeworthy and oftentimes racist media coverage of the singer was standard throughout the entirety of her relationship with Ben. As Ben puts it in the doc, “I said to her once, ‘Doesn’t this bother you?’ And she said, ‘I’m Latina. I’m a woman. I expected this. You just don’t expect it. You expect to be treated fairly.’”

Shout-out to Ben, who has been J.Lo’s supporter since day one! And clearly she appreciates him because she posts this cute video in his honor on Father’s Day (it’s full of BTS moments):

May 2022

An insider tells Us Weekly that J.Lo “wants the formalities out of the way so they can start their journey as man and wife sooner rather than later.” The source said she also wants to have a “spectacular celebration” and mentioned she and Ben are “committed to making this work and taking all the steps necessary to respect each other’s boundaries and learn from their mistakes the last time around.”

Another source shared similar sentiments to Entertainment Tonight. “Ben and Jen want to get married soon,” said the insider. “They are talking about having a destination or tropical wedding. They can’t wait to spend the rest of their lives together forever, happily in love.”

April 2022

Bennifer get engaged—again!!!!!!! Jen breaks the news in her newsletter that we’re all now subscribed to, On the JLo:

And then Jen’s sister Lynda shares a glimpse at the ring on her Instagram Story:

So, what does J.Lo have to say about the proposal? Ahem: “Did you ever imagine your biggest dream could come true?” she writes (per CNN). “Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed. I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years, this was happening all over again. I was quite literally speechless and he said, ‘Is that a yes?’ I said, ‘YES, of course that’s a YES.’”

In non-relationship news, Bennifer’s $50 million house falls out of escrow, so they once again start touring mansions in Los Angeles, as one does.

March 2022

Ben and Jen buy a house together! And by “house,” we mean enormous $50 million mansion estate with four (!!) kitchens. The home is nestled in a quaint little area called Bel-Air (lol), and they will be blending their families in it since “the entire brood from both sides will be living there.”

May 2021

Jen and Alex Rodriguez split and end their engagement! They announce their decision in a joint statement to the Today show amid (false!) cheating rumors:

This same month, Ben compliments J.Lo for her May 2021 InStyle cover story, saying, “She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business. She has great talent, but she has also worked very hard for her success, and I’m so happy for her that she seems, at long last, to be getting the credit she deserves.”

And then? Then things start HAPPENING. The exes are spotted out and about together, they take a trip to Montana, *and* TMZ reports that their ’ship has “been building since February” when Ben “started flooding her with emails” full of “loving and longing.” Emails! Like…okay!

Meanwhile, Page Six reports that Bennifer’s “public comeback romance” was supposed to happen in a “tightly controlled” way, but the paps ruined it. According to a source:

January 2021

Ana de Armas and Ben are done. “They have had numerous discussions about their future and they decided together to break up,” a source tells People, with another sourcing adding that the breakup is “mutual and something that is completely amicable. They are in different points in their lives; there is deep love and respect there.”

We’ll always have the memz!

March 2020

Ben and Ana de Armas start dating after meeting on the set of Deep Water. They’re spotted vacationing in Cuba, and it’s clear they’re a couple when Ben slides into Ana’s comments asking for photo cred.

February 2020

Ben tells the New York Times that J.Lo should have been nominated for her role in Hustlers, saying, “She should have been nominated. She’s the real thing. 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.”

That same month, he tells tells Diane Sawyer that in five years, “I would love to have a relationship that is deeply meaningful and one to which I could be deeply committed.…Five years from now, Ben Affleck is sober and happy and sees his kids three and a half days a week and has made three or four movies that are interesting to him. I directed two [movies] that he is hopefully proud of and is in a healthy, stable, loving, committed relationship.”

March 2019

J.Lo and A-Rod get engaged with a truly enormous ring!

October 2018

Ben and Jen Garner’s divorce is finalized, although they’d separated years earlier in June 2015. Around this time, Ben also splits from his girlfriend of a year, Lindsay Shookus (who was recently seen partying with A-Rod, just FYI!).

March 2017

A-Rod and J.Lo start dating! A source tells People, “She seems excited. He has been around her family, and she really likes that he is a dad. She is aware, though, that he is a ladies’ man too and is being cautious. For now, it’s just fun. She is single and enjoys dating.”

Here’s him gushing:

August 2016

J.Lo and Casper Smart part ways, with a source telling People, “The relationship had just run its course” and that they’d “hit a rough patch.”

January 2015

J.Lo tells HuffPost Live she has “no regrets” about Ben Affleck, saying, “I would do it all over again, I think. I really would. Even the relationship part. I just feel like everything is part of your story and your journey and is meant to be and helps you grow if you’re willing to look at it, and I’m willing to look.”

However, she also says, “[Gigli] was a very badly reviewed film. I was in a high-profile relationship at the time that fell apart in a really bad way, and so the kind of mix of those two things and the tabloid press had just come into existence at the time, so I was like a poster child for that moment. I was in the tabloids every other week about how my life was falling apart. It was a tough time.”

October 2011

J.Lo starts dating her backup dancer Casper Smart!

July 2011

J.Lo and Marc Anthony announce their separation, and their divorce is eventually finalized a couple of years later in June 2014.

June 2005

Ben and Jen Garner get married during a private ceremony in Turks and Caicos and go on to have three kids!

June 2004

J.Lo starts up a relationship with her ex Marc Anthony and they get married in June—five months after her split from Ben. She later says in her book True Love that he “came back into my life three days after I should have been at the altar saying ‘I do’ to another man.” They go on to have two cute kids together.

Meanwhile, Ben Affleck starts dating Jennifer Garner (his costar in Daredevil!). Here they are flirting up a storm when Jen was married to Scott Foley and Ben was engaged to J.Lo.

January 2004

Jen and Ben confirm their split with a simple statement from J.Lo’s rep that reads, “I am confirming the report that Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck. At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy.”

September 2003

Just days before their wedding, Bennifer calls it off in a joint statement—citing the media frenzy surrounding them as the reason.

July 2003

The couple arrives at the premiere for Gigli. The vibes? Slightly awkward.

November 2002

Ben proposes to Jennifer (for the first time!) with a ring that has been haunting me for more than a decade: a 6.1-carat pink solitaire. At the time, J.Lo tells Diane Sawyer that the proposal was “traditional but also in a very spectacular way, as of course Ben would do it…it was very, very beautiful.”

That same month, Ben stars in J.Lo’s iconic “Jenny From the Block” video:

September 2002

Jennifer and Ben inexplicably decide to film another movie together called Jersey Girl. Okay!!!!!

December 2001

Jennifer and Ben fall for each other on the set of Gigli, which would go on to absolutely bomb at the box office. It was truly the best of times and the worst of times.