Jennifer Lopez Claims She, Ben Affleck Had PTSD After Public Scrutiny of Their First Romance
Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic Reading Time: 3 minutes
Apparently, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are still healing from the trauma rooted from the depths of their original romance. The Hustlers actress recently opened up about how media coverage significantly affected their previous breakup.
Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Had PTSD After Media Coverage of Their Original Relationship
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Lopez said they still fear public scrutiny due to their past experience with media. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Lopez and Affleck are more safe and secure with their romance today.
“We both have PTSD,” she said. “But we’re older now. We’re wiser. We also know what’s important, what’s really important in life, and it’s not so much what other people think. It’s about being true to who you are.”
Lopez will release upcoming visual album This Is Me… Now on February 16, 2024. This ninth studio album will essentially mark the 20th anniversary of This Is Me…Then, a collection dedicated to Affleck around the time of their first engagement. Lopez will also drop a Dave Meyers-directed companion short film at the same time by Amazon MGM Studios.
For those who may not know, Lopez and Affleck initially dated back in the early 2000s. Their romance reached to a point of engagement, until they surprisingly called off their wedding plans in 2004. Years later, they rekindled their love in 2021, then marrying in Las Vegas in 2022.
In a previous conversation with The Howard Stern Show, Affleck confessed that extreme media attention was a major factor of their breakup then.
“I would say [media attention] was about 50 percent [of what destroyed our relationship]. The idea that people hate you and they hate you together and that being together is poison and ugly and toxic and the thing none of us want to be part of,” he said.
She Says Releasing This Is Me… Now is Her Following Her Heart
This Is Me… Now short film will include scenes of Lopez’s husband, alongside songs and performances referencing their romance. According to Lopez, not all people from her camp approve of her documenting her and Affleck’s story in the film. Nonetheless, she knows that pressure should not consume her artistry.
“As artists, we have to follow our heart and this is me following my heart and doing something that maybe everybody didn’t think was the best idea, but I had to do it,” she said.
Be that as it may, Lopez did not exactly clarify whether the short film will be a scripted feature or a documentary.
“You have to see it and you’ll have to experience it to understand it,” she said. “That’s why I call it a ‘musical experience.’ Because there’s music, you can see it, you can hear it and then you’ll get to live it.”
In a recent teaser for the film, there was a clip of Lopez saying, “When I was a little girl, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always… in love.”
