Ben Affleck ‘Taken Aback’ J.Lo Shared Their Private Love Letters
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend ELLE's Women In Hollywood Celebration at Nya Studios on December 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming documentary and album centers around her rekindled romance with Ben Affleck. In a new interview with Variety Tuesday (February 13), the triple-threat opened up about how her husband wasn’t completely on board with her ideas initially. As we saw when the 54-year-old shared the teaser for the musical film This Is Me… Now, she kept the letters Affleck wrote to her decades ago. The mother of two initially used the book of love letters she saved as inspiration for her album, digging them up for songwriters she had invited to her house. About the musical film, J.Lo stated everyone thought she was crazy. “And by the way, I thought I was crazy,” she added.
According to the publication, there is a scene from the later-releasing documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, that shows Affleck “taken aback” after noticing his private love letters strewn about for the songwriters. He reportedly says he found the “beauty and the poetry” as well as “the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told.” Of her supposed last album, Affleck adds that his wife making a record about it “seems kind of like telling it.” At another point in the doc, Affleck expressed how he prefers to keep the sacred and special things in his life private. The documentary was “something of an adjustment” for him.
Despite Affleck’s initial hesitations, Lopez explained that her husband was wildly supportive throughout the making of the musical film. He also often gave her filmmaking advice during shooting. This Is Me… Now, the album and the accompanying musical film, releases on Friday, February 16 on Amazon Prime Video. The Greatest Love Story Never Told will be released on Tuesday, February 27. At the premiere of her musical film Tuesday night (February 13), Lopez was tearing up on stage, praising his support and helping her grow as a person.
Ben Affleck's Style Evolution
Ben Affleck was born Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California. The award-winning actor and director moved to Massachusetts with his family at age three. Ben’s mother, Christopher Anne, was an elementary school teacher. His father, Timothy Byers, was a man of many trades. He worked sporadically as a carpenter, auto mechanic, bookie, electrician, bartender, and janitor at his wife’s Alma mater, Harvard. In the mid-1960s, Timothy was an actor and stage manager with the Theater Company of Boston.
Ben’s Difficult Childhood
However, during Ben’s childhood, his father was dealing with a severe alcoholism problem. He would later struggle with alcohol himself, going to rehab a few times for it and using it as a coping mechanism during his divorce from Jennifer Garner. Ben’s parents divorced when he was 12 years old. He later recalled their marriage as being “so bad” and feeling that it was a “relief” that it was over. After being homeless for two years, it took two more years before his father went to rehab in California; he lived at the facility for twelve years to maintain his sobriety and worked there as an addiction counselor.
Ben and his younger brother Casey Affleck regularly attended theater performances with their mother. The two brothers auditioned for roles in local commercials and film productions because of their mother’s connection with a casting director in the area. At age seven, Ben landed his first professional acting role in The Dark End of the Street (1981). For the next few years, Ben would go back and forth from Mexico and Massachusetts to film the PBS educational children’s television program, The Voyage of the Mimi. He learned to speak Spanish while living in the country for a year straight at 13. Ben shocked fans he's fluent in Spanish when he did an interview promoting Air in April.
Ben met his longtime friend Matt Damon when they went to school together. They’ve known each other since Ben was eight years old. Though Damon is two years older, they shared “identical interests” of wanting to pursue acting careers. So, they’d travel to New York together for auditions and even open a joint bank account together. By 1993, Ben appeared in the cult classic Dazed and Confused. After befriending and working with Kevin Smith on a few projects, the Clerks filmmaker cast him in his breakthrough role, 1997’s Chasing Amy. Then, he reunited with Matt Damon for the role that really put him on the map, Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote and starred in. With 87 acting credits, 33 credits as a producer, nine as a director, and seven as a writer, Affleck has cemented his name in Hollywood forever.
Take a look below at Ben Affleck through the years. He may have gotten older, but his facial expressions have remained true iconic Ben.
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
