Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's relationship indications were subtly evident, one merely needed to decipher their hidden signs.
Many people interpreted the "Bennifer" news items about selling their home or Lopez cancelling her tour as signs of trouble in their relationship. All this conjecture came to an end on Tuesday when Lopez filed for divorce in a California court, which coincided with the anniversary of their second wedding ceremony.
However, it seems the couple has already shared all they wish to about their relationship. A Prime Video documentary titled "The Greatest Love Story Never Told" provides a glimpse into their relationship. Released in February, the documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Lopez's short film accompanying her album "This Is Me...Now: A Love Story."
Before their 2022 wedding, Lopez and Affleck were engaged two decades earlier, but called it off just three days before their planned September 2003 wedding due to the pressures of being in the spotlight. The documentary explores what brought them back together, as well as their bond and conflicts, which may shed light on why their relationship ended, once again.
The title and its meaning
Ben Affleck's romantic side is undeniable.
He compiled all their letters and emails they exchanged over 20 years into a memory book titled "The Greatest Love Story Never Told." He gave it to Lopez on their first Christmas together after their reunion.
Lopez used these letters as inspiration for her album "This is Me...Now," sharing it with her creative team.
"She would pick one and let us touch it and read it," one songwriter recalls in the documentary.
Affleck's reaction to discovering the book served as inspiration for his wife's work is also shared in the film.
"She was like ‘I’ve been reading and the people...this is the kind of inspiration. I’ve been showing them the book,’" Affleck recalls. "‘I was like ‘You’ve been showing all the musicians all those letters that...’ and they were like ‘Yeah, we call you Pen Affleck!’ And I was like ‘Oh my God.’”
Though out of his comfort zone, Affleck seems to understand.
"I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told," he says. "If you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”
Their contrasting approaches to creativity and fame are often blamed for their relationship's strains.
"Things that are private, I always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they’re private," Affleck says at one point in the film. "We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.”
"Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’" Affleck later says in the project. "Then I sort of realized 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.’”
Lopez expresses her appreciation for Affleck's support.
"I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this," she says in the documentary. "But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I made... he doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.”
All the emotion
"The Greatest Love Story Never Told" begins with Lopez explaining how her reunion with Affleck inspired her to release her first studio album in a decade.
She admits that her love for him continued in their separation, but she chose to put it aside.
"When her and Ben first broke up it was catastrophic to her constitution," Dave Meyers, who directed her music videos years ago and the "This Is Me...Now: A Love Story" short film, says in the documentary. "Everything that she wanted from what she understood love to be, for that to not work, For the pressures to break it apart. That just spun her out.”
Lopez recalls their initial split, reminiscing about how she lost her best friend and weeps as she talks about the love Affleck has shown her.
"What he saw in me, what he allowed me to believe about myself, only comes from love," she says as tears roll down her face. "Nobody else could make me see that about myself. It’s very moving. Because I didn’t think much of myself, and so the world didn’t think much of me.”
There are also moments of joy.
Affleck points out that Lopez's character in her short film, which she insists is not completely based on her life, is 28 years old, which is not the age she was when they were first together.
"But you were," she says to Affleck. "You were. That’s why you were not as smart as me.”
Affleck is now 51 and Lopez is 54.
During the docu-series, he bring up his desire to act juvenile with her, even in her semi-autobiographical movie. She fondly labels him as a "simpleton."
Lopez shares how they managed to reconnect after all these years.
"We're two distinct individuals now. Yet, we're exactly the same," she explains. "We've got it all. A hundred percent."
A love story that spanned two decades, now seemingly drawing to a close.
The documentary offers fans a deeper insight into the couple's relationship, providing entertainment and emotional resonance. The compilation of their letters and emails served as a significant source of inspiration for Lopez's album, further adding to the entertainment value of their love story.
