News : Ben Affleck Opens Up About ‘Really Meaningful’ Relationship With Jennifer Lopez

The beloved Bennifer saga is still going strong, nearly 20 years later.

In a new conversation with Matt Damon for Entertainment Weekly, Ben Affleck recalls the publicity surrounding his relationship with Gigli costar Jennifer Lopez.

Throughout the discussion, the Good Will Hunting costars and longtime friends went into detail about the movies Affleck has starred in throughout his decades-long career. For Gigli, which follows the kidnapping of a powerful federal prosecutor’s psychologically challenged younger brother, Affleck was drawn to the film because of director Marty Brest.

“There’s no question in my mind that this was a guy I wanted to work with. There was wonderful stuff in there,” Affleck said. “There are things where my daughter will be like, ‘This is ableist and disgusting,’ and okay. The way we see stuff has changed a little bit, or a lot in some cases. And there are things that seemed they could work at the time and don’t in retrospect.”

“But really, the truth about that movie and what it taught me was how much everything around a movie sort of dictates the way people see it,” he continued. “But for being a movie that’s such a famous bomb and a disaster, very few people actually saw the movie […] And the studio at the time, because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto, ‘They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!’ And it was just like that SNL sketch: ‘Bad Idea.'”

Affleck added that the “funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure” surrounding Gigli  was “kind of a perfect storm.”

However, the actor sweetly noted that the movie allowed him to “meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”Lopez and Affleck first began dating in 2002 and got engaged that year. They postponed their wedding in September 2003 and officially split in January 2004. In July 2021, after rumors circulating that the two have rekindled their romance, Lopez confirmed their relationship by posting a photo of them kissing on Instagram.