Ben Affleck's First Break Up With Jennifer Lopez Pushed Him to Take a Drastic Step

Ben Affleck made a big decision when he broke up with his Gigli co-star Jennifer Lopez. The actor who is a well-known Oscar award winner once planned on leaving Hollywood altogether with no trace. Grappling with emotional turmoil after his highly covered separation from the American singer, Affleck went on a hideout away from tabloids in Georgia. 

In an interview with GQ, the onscreen Batman shared, "I think I just ran away. You can only handle so much. I moved for a while to this place in Georgia that I have, and was able to get away, by and large, from stuff. Come up with a plan for how to do something with my life that doesn’t put me in the crosshairs of this sort of thing." In a 2012 interview, the actor confessed that he almost derailed his career in Hollywood after the break up with JLo. Meanwhile, it wasn't just the Good Will Hunting star but his ex-lover also who went down the spiral of devastation. JLo had similar plans of quitting the showbiz industry. However, Penelope Cruz had urged the Dance Again hitmaker to stay focused on work as reported by NPR. 

"Yeah, we were on a plane together, and we started talking, and I was just like, I just don’t know. And she was like, you are crazy. You have to – no, Jennifer, we all look at you, and we – and I was like, wow," Lopez confessed during an interview. The former lovers crossed their paths again in 2020 and started talking to each other. In 2022, the two held a lavish wedding in the presence of their family and kids from a previous marriage. However, things weren't going well between the two at the onset of the year 2024. 

The celebrity couple that was monikered "Bennifer 2.0" was last seen together before the summer. The pair spent their time away from each other for months before recent reports of an irreconcilable split. A source close to the Daily Mail shared, "They finalized the divorce papers with her a month ago, but are waiting for the right time to drop them. Honestly, in the end, they could not come to a compromise. What they had before is gone and they have both accepted it." Recently, when the singer threw a Bridgerton-themed birthday bash, her husband was nowhere to be spotted. 

Soon, the news of the Oscar-winning actor buying a bachelor's pad on his estranged wife's birthday made news that hurt Lopez a lot per insiders. Commenting on their split, another source according to the Daily Mail shared, "At that time, they will release a joint statement that will say how they have much love for each other and how they fought to make it work but couldn't. 'Honestly, in the end, they could not come to a compromise.' What they had before is gone and they have both accepted it."