With most gossip storylines, I can quickly see the machinations behind the scenes: which celebrity wants a certain story out there, whose publicist is on the attack, which couple is soft-launching, etc. But the past week of Ben Affleck gossip has thrown me for a loop. All it took was Ben getting handsy with Jennifer Garner at their son Samuel’s birthday party for the gossip world to go haywire. Page Six claimed that Ben was suddenly “open” to “giving it another shot” with Garner, even though sources close to Garner were like “hell NO.” Ben’s PR then ran to TMZ to claim that of course Ben isn’t interested in getting back with Garner and he’s not even dating anyone right now. Then, suddenly, it looked like this whole “are Ben and J-Garner reconciling” storyline was about bringing it around to Jennifer Lopez:
A source recently told Page Six that the “Maid in Manhattan” actress is “not happy with constantly seeing photos” of Affleck and Garner, who were married between 2005 – 2018. The pair have sparked speculation that there may be something more between them as they were pictured cozying up to each other on a recent paintballing event with their children, Fin and Samuel.
The insider told the news outlet that the photos have been like “salt in the wound” to Lopez, adding that she’s not only “furious,” but also the situation is “completely messing with her head.”
Another source, however, maintained that the “Let’s Get Loud” singer is seemingly oblivious of Affleck’s recent closeness with Garner, explaining that she’s focused on her upcoming Netflix movie, “Office Romance.”
“I doubt she has even seen these stories as she is consumed with the film,” the insider shared. “She has been fully concentrating on her life, her growth, and her happiness.”
I don’t think it’s one extreme or the other – I doubt J.Lo is consumed with rage about the Affleck-Garner gossip, nor is she solely focusing on herself. She’s probably like everyone else, wondering what the hell is going on there. Which brings me to the latest chapter in this story: Ben wants nothing to do with J.Lo.
Ben Affleck is “happier than he’s been in years” after settling his divorce from Jennifer Lopez two months ago, a source exclusively tells Page Six. We’re told the Oscar winner is “in a much better mood lately” and is “excited” about this next chapter.
“Ben hasn’t been in regular contact with Jennifer since their divorce unless it revolves around their kids’ school functions,” the insider says. Affleck, 52, “has no hard feelings for Jennifer but he would rather keep things at a distance.”
According to the source, the “Gone Girl” star “doesn’t really see a point in remaining close friends” with the “Let’s Get Loud” singer, 55.
Was this all for an audience of one? Am I crazy for thinking that? Like, Ben was doing the most to show Jennifer Lopez that he’s over her and he’s not thinking about her and he’s more interested in the other Jennifer? I almost believe he was trying to get a reaction out of J.Lo.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Hollywood, CA – Celebrities attend the Los Angeles premiere of Amazon MGM Studios “This Is Me…Now: A Love Story” at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez BACKGRID USA 13 FEBRUARY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Juan Rico / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Beverly Hills, CA – Reunited! Divorced superstars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez seem to be on good terms as they meet at the Beverly Hills Hotel to enjoy a Saturday lunch with their children. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck BACKGRID USA 14 SEPTEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BlueLoveImages /LAGOSSIPTV / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Beverly Hills, CA – Reunited! Divorced superstars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are spotted in the middle of an intense conversation outside of the Beverly Hills Hotel during a lunch outing with their children. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck BACKGRID USA 14 SEPTEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BlueLoveImages /LAGOSSIPTV / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Hollywood, CA – The 15th annual Governors Awards brought together A-listers like Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, and Selena Gomez for a glamorous evening. Honorary Oscars were presented to the late Quincy Jones and casting director Juliet Taylor, alongside special recognitions for Richard Curtis, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli. Pictured: Jennifer Lopez BACKGRID USA 17 NOVEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: The Grosby Group / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner reunited to support a community food drive in downtown Los Angeles, spreading goodwill and helping families on Thanksgiving! Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner BACKGRID USA 29 NOVEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Ben Affleck gets very close to ex wife Jennifer Garner at their son Sam’s 13th birthday party at a paintball park in Los Angeles. Ben was following Jennifer around and laughing and flirting with her throughout the party. He came in close several times and kept coming up to her laughing and smiling. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner BACKGRID USA 2 MARCH 2025 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Ben Affleck gets very close to ex wife Jennifer Garner at their son Sam’s 13th birthday party at a paintball park in Los Angeles. Ben was following Jennifer around and laughing and flirting with her throughout the party. He came in close several times and kept coming up to her laughing and smiling. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner BACKGRID USA 2 MARCH 2025 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Ben Affleck gets very close to ex wife Jennifer Garner at their son Sam’s 13th birthday party at a paintball park in Los Angeles. Ben was following Jennifer around and laughing and flirting with her throughout the party. He came in close several times and kept coming up to her laughing and smiling. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner BACKGRID USA 2 MARCH 2025 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Los Angeles, CA – Ben Affleck gets very close to ex wife Jennifer Garner at their son Sam’s 13th birthday party at a paintball park in Los Angeles. Ben was following Jennifer around and laughing and flirting with her throughout the party. He came in close several times and kept coming up to her laughing and smiling. Pictured: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner BACKGRID USA 2 MARCH 2025 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Oookay. This guy is a manipulative selfish clown and both women should stay as far away from him as possible.
You’re not crazy for thinking he’s been doing this for JLo’s sake. It’s been happening for some time, as well.
I don’t buy he’s happy, nor over it, but he made his bed. He’s ‘free’ now. I’m just glad JLo’s away from his toxic, petty ass.
This could be the first time I have ever commented on Ben and JLO (second max) but one theory I have is that Ben thought that JLO would baby him like I perceived she did in the past and when he started acting up, I think that he presumed she would chase him after him since she did not want to look foolish…but alas, none of those things happen.
I agree with Kaiser: Ben is going to great lengths to prove he’s over Jen Lopez, and his very amicable coparenting relationship is being used to rub it in her face. But by allowing this information to leak, he’s shoving it in her face and being extra cruel. Ben has a history of disrespecting his partners, as seen in his past behavior with Jen G. and Jen Lopez. He’s gross and needs to get over himself.
You use the word disrespectful, and I think it’s appropriate in this context. The behavior is also immature and adolescent. Imagine, at his age, to go from telling a woman “I’m not going anywhere” to “I don’t see a point in remaining close friends with you.” He really is a jerk.
I thought JG recently got married? I’d be mad as hell if I was being used like that.
Also what do him and JLo need to discuss the kids school functions for? He didn’t want anything to do with her but plans on keeping in touch with her kids? I thought the rumor was that she grew close to his kids not the other way around. Can she not have the kids keep her informed instead of him?
Idk. That he just seems like such a shitty person. I hope none of the Js deal with hi outside of the kids.
With the exception of Violet who’s in college, all of the kids go to the same private school. IIRC, Lopez and Affleck have been seen supporting their respective children at the same school events. I assumed this is what is being referenced here.
She’s not married but has been in a relationship with John Miller for years. They keep it totally on the downlow. The only nice thing I can say about Affleck is he is very engaged in parenting his kids. Both JG and BA have deliberately carved out a good friendship that puts their kids first despite him being an irredeemable jerk most of the time.
All of this just feels mean on his part. What a loser.
Yes he’s a mean and disrespecting ex. Not to mention all his well documented demons. But jlo and her fans knew that when he got back with her but they were still giddy they were back together. I never understood why.
I agree. This is mean and abusive. He seems to have quit maturing in middle school. He’s the guy who would parade his new girlfriend past his old girlfriend’s locker just to show her how over her he was. Jerk.
All three, Ben, Jen G snd Jen L have been regularly papped for years. Sometimes during interesting periods in their private lives, and sometimes they use that interest in their private lives to drum up interest in their movies and other projects. JLo and Ben do have movies coming out, but this gossip is messy. If these people weren’t famous, I’d assume that the guy was butt-hurt about something and trying to use his one ex to get at his other ex. Is JLo dating someone again?
According to DM… she’s dating Brett Goldstein!
😂If true, this makes a lot of sense. Co-star, younger, hotter. Thanks, Louisa!
He’s sexy, Get it, girl!
Ah, maybe that explains the last couple weeks of “Ben might just get back together with Jennifer Garner” and “He’s really so so happy (really)”.
Ben seems like the kind of guy who would want his ex to be miserable for at least a year mourning the loss of a Great Man such as himself.
Seeing her with a younger, cooler writer/actor/producer (with better hair, too 😉) might be a reason for him lashing out.
Oh come on, DM really? They’re the ones pushing all this nonsense. It gets clicks to keep the big triangles (or quad-angles).m, despite their lack of reality
I don’t particularly care about any of these people, but I find this behavior towards JLo to be really hurtful in a kind of shocking way. Why is it necessary to humiliate her this way in the press? If Ben really needs to deliver this message to her, there are normal adult ways to do so that don’t involve using the press. I don’t know, I actually find this kind of shocking in its meanness. Even if none of the press speculation is true, why not tell all your publicists to just say you respect JLo and wish her well? There’s no need for “sources” from Ben to be providing updates on how much they speak or what level of relationship he wants with his ex. This is just really ugly yuck.
I also don’t really understand the kid thing. They were married for 2 years? Engaged for one? The kids are all mid-teens, no? I mean, I think it’s likely that they developed a relationship with JLo, but I don’t really see any “coordinating” needs with Ben’s kids for JLo. What is that? They’re not her kids and the marriage wasn’t long enough for them to view her as a mother figure, I’d think. I find this whole kid thing very odd, it makes it sound like JLo raised his kids or that she was their step for a lot of their formative years, but that isn’t the case. Dunno, I find this whole narrative very odd.
+1 about the kids. They are old enough to write an occasional how are you dm to their parent’s ex if they feel like keeping in touch, but I don’t think any effort is required on the adults’ part to remain in the kids’ lives.
I agree!
I actually belive that trying to blend their families together probably kept them together longer than if they BOTH didn’t have families, though.
It’s really mean-spirited and petty. Ben is like that guy we’ve all dated at one point in our lives, the guy who acts shockingly cold in the face of a mutual, mostly-amicable break-up. It’s kinda juvenile actually.
But wasn’t she cruel in publicizing all those love letters that he wrote to her that was just meant for her to read? That humiliated Ben. I’m not saying what he has been doing is right, but she is not innocent in this either.
He produced the film the letters were in. He signed off. He just got mad it was a failure. My grandmother always said, love goes out the window when bills come in the door.
And he should be an adult and stay in touch with his former step-kids. He is a poor example of being an adult and maintaining healthy relationships – but we knew that. Two years is a long time to teenagers. He was a father to them. It meant something, and they likely feel rejected because he’s just bounced.
He’s so tiresome. Why hasn’t he been offered a government position yet. He’s a perfect fit.
That’s not nice. Government employees work extremely hard for lower-than-private-sector pay, and they deserve our respect now more than ever. They do it because they believe in a mission. I’ve been a government employee. I could only take the high pace, high stress, high workload, and lack of respectful treatment from the public for 3 years.
I read it more as a reference to how the current US government is being run, mostly by men who hate women and have a lot of issues.
I meant Trumps bullshit government he is making up as he goes along.I didn’t mean our respected and under attack actual real government employees who re currently having their lives ruined by that despot in the White house. No disrespect was intended and I apologize.
The tabs paint Ben as ruthless, cold and sociopathic.
He chased Lopez after his divorce from Garner. Was all up in her life again and now has just dropped her like she never existed.
Not true. He didn’t chase her after his divorce. It was about eight years after his split with Jennifer. In the meantime between marriages he had about 4-5 girlfriends.
In 2014, for the ALS challenge, Garner dumped an ice bucket over Ben’s head and he threw her in the pool, because she messed up his weave. The divorce was on after that. PETTY! Right no contact with JLo until the next drunk booty call.
You were supposed to dump the ice bucket over one’s head for the ALS challenge. Ben had to realize his hair would get messed up! You could hear their child(ren) laughing in the background! I think he threw Jen in to amuse them!
He is a douchebag.
People were saying all kind of sh*t about JLo and it is because of her and her love of attention that Ben was so exposed. She is out of the picture, back to her life before this mess and Ben is still playing media games. I hope one day we stop blaming the woman automatically. Jen Garner knew who Ben was, that is why she made a point of supporting JLo publicly.
He’s spiraling again, clue is the insistence that he is so happy. He will be back in rehab within the next year.
Well, I’ve got some news for you Ben: J. Lo doesn’t need you.
hmmmm. Every time he blows up his life (and makes someone else absolutely miserable in the process) he’s “happier than ever” once it’s behind him.
I can’t decide if I don’t believe it or I don’t doubt it.
He is jack-nasty and all the Jennifers need to steer clear.
Ben Affleck USED to be one of my favorite Actors/Directors…his cruel AF 🤬 private life has soured me for good…There’s something wrong with him. #ThereISaidIt
Yep. He’s dead to me.
There’s definitely something wrong with him. He keeps playing out the same scenarios over and over. He has been clean and sober for maybe three years? It takes at least 5 years to get your head out of your ass.
The previous run to the press for Ben was the ‘ I am quietly dating’ spiel. That was when I said, and another poster, maybe more too, no I think, jlo is quietly dating, and Ben is scared she is completely not attached to him emotionally anymore.
This reeks like that too, but more intensely cruel as a follow up for Ben, he is always hammering home a point when he is being ignored. When he ignores people, which he does even jlos kids whom he also fake-love – bombed then it is his “process of taking care of himself-“, but if jlo is not responding to his mindless public and private cruelty it is because she is healing and away from him
If as above commenters say – she is seeing someone who is a good prospect for a mature relationship and jlo is not loud about it, here goes Ben trying to ramp up any insecurities she might have to get her pliable to his needs.
The thing about jlo being traumatized is she is doing her inner self esteem work without relying on Ben to support her. And Ben is out. And when a traumatized women has to get quiet to heal then someone like Ben will do a lot of wheel spinning to get her attention to see if he can still spin her up in a web. I think this does look like jlo may be seeing someone, I’m hoping Brett. Bc he is the exact man who would intimidate Ben someone who can actually be in a grown intelligent relationship. Therefore be good to jlo. Handsomer because he is kind, successful in the business -but not an attention seeker like ben, witty, smart, funny, actually a casual relaxed man.
Ben has always been the worst. Too bad his messiness has ruined my enjoyment of his movies
According to the quote in cosmopolitan magazine about JLo and Bretr Goldstein “he is the younger,,better, British version of Ben.”
“Ben knows who Brett is, he is plenty aware. Brett is younger and smarter than Ben. It will irk him for sure.”
Yeah, the last month of stories has been strange. I actually agree that Ben SHOULD be keeping his distance from Lopez. He pursued her after so many years, committed to her, and then ghosted her in less than two years. So I wholeheartedly agree to the idea of leaving her alone, but not the instinct to make sure the tabloids know about it.
It’s not about him, or whether he wants to be around her or not, it’s whether SHE could ever allow him around her ever again. I find it telling that this little story seems to assume that it’s going to be all up to Ben to decide what their future relationship will look like.
Luckily for J.Lo, she is not tethered to him like Garner is. She can and will move on, because she loves nothing more than being in love. Perhaps she has even moved on already and that’s why these stories are circulating?
I think this all has to do with Ben’s oldest daughter. Yes I believe that Jlo and her family used her at a very vulnerable time in her life. Spending a lot of time with her in the Hampton, her sister visiting her at her school and her wearing jlo’s cloths. They made it seem as though the daughter was against her dad and on jlo’s side of the divorce. I think she was manipulated from the beginning to try and get Ben back and to show him we have the upper hand. I wish them all the best. I think Ben is still in therapy for his addiction. It’s a life long process. Good luck to all of them.
“happier than he’s been in years” … “in a much better mood lately”
HAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAhaha. He ALWAYS says that. Every. frickin’. time. After every breakup, he’s always like, “glad to have that albatross gone from around my neck.” Well, guess what?! It’s YOU, Ben. YOU are the problem. It’s not these women.
PS — He wasn’t even married to JLo for “years,” so it ain’t on her.
He seems to be a very stuck person. Too bad he can’t grow or move forward when it comes to his love life.
He left the marriage first but this story is very petulant, like a bitter ex, which makes no sense cause he ghosted her until she pulled the plug on their marriage. I don’t understand the point of putting this out there from his camp’s perspective which is why I agree with other posters that she probably already has someone else lined up and he doesn’t think she’s mourned their breakup long enough.
I disagree that Ben believes JL has not “mourned their breakup long enough”. Ben was done & moved out into a rental awhile before JL filed. I think they were extremely uncompatible! Sadly, both of them thought that they both were ” the one that got away” I think they BOTH are now completely over each other
I am not saying he probably didn’t
ghost her or handle it like a responsible adult, though. It was even reported that JG saw alot of parallels in his marriage troubles with JL & hers.
I think that is why JG initially tried to get Ben to work on his marriage to JL.
Lord he is a douche bag. Jennifer Lopez is well rid of his butt. His I’m not going anywhere crap to her. He is an abuser plain and simple