Ben Affleck was aware of the differences between him and Jennifer Lopez during their marriage.
After JLo sadly filed for divorce on Tuesday, 20 August, some of Ben’s previous comments about their relationship have resurfaced, and they give us an idea of some of the challenges the two faced as a couple — though we don’t know at this time exactly what led to their separation.
“I had a very firm sense of boundaries initially around the press while Jen I don’t think objected to it in the way I did. I very much did object to it,” Ben said in his wife’s documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, as reported by E! News. The doc came out in February.
He continued: “I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media.’ And then I sort of realised it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, ‘Well, I don’t like the water.’
“We’re just two people with kind of different approaches trying to learn to compromise.”
The issue of how public to be has unfortunately been an ongoing difficulty in Ben and Jen’s relationship. The two originally got together in 2002, but ended up splitting up in 2004 due in part to overwhelming public scrutiny.
“My relationship [with Affleck] self-destructed in front of the entire world,” Jennifer admitted in 2017 during an interview with Vanity Fair. “It was a two-year thing for me until I picked myself up again.”
And just this June, Ben described the disparity between his level of fame and Jennifer’s. Speaking on Kevin Hart’s podcast, the actor said: “People are like, ‘Hey, I like your movie,'” when they see him, whereas when they spot his wife: “they’re like ‘AHHHH! JLO!'”
Sadly, Bennifer’s second breakup hasn’t come as a surprise for fans, as divorce rumours had been following them for months now. Now, after two years married, their relationship is truly over. We wish Ben and Jen all the best as they navigate this tricky time.