As I’ve said many times, I like and respect Jennifer Lopez and I’m a believer in Bennifer 2.0. My horror at Jennifer’s Variety cover story was because it suddenly feels like Jen – and not Ben – is the one sabotaging the relationship. Jen and Ben have only been married for a year and a half and she’s already devoting an album, a musical film and a documentary to their love story. Ben is her FOURTH husband. All of Jennifer’s friends, associates and business partners have warned her about how extra and cringe all of this is but she’s going full throttle. Come hell or high water, she’s going to be as over-the-top as possible to celebrate this marriage. J.Lo recently chatted with Yahoo about the projects:
The 54-year-old singer is simultaneously dropping a film — This Is Me…Now: A Love Story — on Prime Video, which takes heavy influence from her and Affleck’s decades-spanning love story.
“I felt like I wanted to do something special,” Lopez explains to Yahoo Entertainment of her $20 million, self-funded passion project. (A forthcoming documentary rounds out the three-part spectacle.) “I felt like the music deserved that.”
In 2002, when “Bennifer” was first plastered on nearly every tabloid cover, Lopez released her first Affleck-infused album, This Is Me…Then. The fact that the follow-up was two decades in the making is why Lopez feels like it deserved more. “People know the story of me and Ben, that’s not the story I want to tell,” she says.
This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is “meta,” she says. “It’s not autobiographical, but it’s definitely inspired by events of my life and of other people’s kind of journeys that I’ve watched. But it’s definitely the story of a hopeless romantic’s journey through life and their search for love. That really kind of sums it up in a way, and there’s definitely things from my life that are infused and inspired in the story.”
As for how they handle [the interest in their marriage] now, Lopez says she is more “confident” in knowing their truth. “Honestly, we’re just kind of very grown,” Lopez says. “Everything seems so important when you’re younger, you know what I mean? You think everything’s going to be taken away from you and everything that everybody says or thinks about you matters, and as you get older you realize it really doesn’t. Not that you don’t care what people think, I do, but at the same time I feel very confident in knowing who I am and what I have to offer. There’s not really anything anybody can say to shake that.”
Lopez continues, “The thing I love more about who I am today as opposed to maybe 20 years ago is I can really continue evolving, and growing, and knowing that I’m not where I’m gonna be in two years, or five years or 10 years. It’s going to be even better. It’s really the exciting part.”
Of course, when Lopez and Affleck did break up the first time, it was hard on the pair. If Lopez could go back and tell herself something in 2004, she says it would be this: “It’s gonna be better than you think. So just hang on.”
“We’re just kind of very grown…Everything seems so important when you’re younger, you know what I mean? You think everything’s going to be taken away from you and everything that everybody says or thinks about you matters, and as you get older you realize it really doesn’t.” This is a very mature outlook for two 50-somethings navigating a blended family with teens and exes and the world watching. Which begs the question, why the hell did Jennifer think that it was a good idea to bring documentary film cameras into this situation, and why did she want to explore “being in love with love” in a $20 million self-financed musical???
Before all of this, the thing I liked so much about the Bennifer Redux was that they genuinely seemed more mature and like they stopped giving a sh-t about all of the outside noise. But now Jen is the one demanding that the outside noise be brought in constantly, that the world needs to examine and witness their love story. It’s like that disastrous, TMI-cringefest 2003 Diane Sawyer interview, only so much more involved.
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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 13: Ben Affleck and wife Jennifer Lopez (JLo) wearing a Zuhair Murad Couture gown with Joseph Saidian and Sons vintage Van Cleef & Arpels diamond earrings and A.Jaffe diamond rings arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’ held at the Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 846503912, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, JLo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon 
HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 13: Ben Affleck and wife Jennifer Lopez (JLo) wearing a Zuhair Murad Couture gown with Joseph Saidian and Sons vintage Van Cleef & Arpels diamond earrings and A.Jaffe diamond rings arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’ held at the Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 846504026, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, JLo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon 
HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 13: Ben Affleck and wife Jennifer Lopez (JLo) wearing a Zuhair Murad Couture gown with Joseph Saidian and Sons vintage Van Cleef & Arpels diamond earrings and A.Jaffe diamond rings arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’ held at the Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 846504063, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, JLo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 13: Jennifer Lopez (JLo) wearing a Zuhair Murad Couture gown with Joseph Saidian and Sons vintage Van Cleef and Arpels diamond earrings and A.Jaffe diamond rings arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’ held at the Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 846505624, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, JLo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon 
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 13: (L-R) Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story” at Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, California.,Image: 846558953, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon 
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 13: Jennifer Lopez attends Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story” at Dolby Theatre on February 13, 2024 in Hollywood, California.,Image: 846559048, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
Celebrities at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story’ Featuring: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 13 Feb 2024 Credit: Ryan Hartford/INSTARimages.com 
Celebrities at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story’ Featuring: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 13 Feb 2024 Credit: Ryan Hartford/INSTARimages.com 
Celebrities at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘This Is Me… Now: A Love Story’ Featuring: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 13 Feb 2024 Credit: Ryan Hartford/INSTARimages.comncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcW1naoV1e8mepaehlpq%2FoLjOqZyzl6edsq%2Br2Kisq52Prry2usaYsKitj6m1qrrKmJyvnaKuwam1zaCWsKGcoayjsb6tmKSdnpSuuK3YmJ2rp52UxrDBjg%3D%3D