They finally did it: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got married, culminating a 20-year relationship full of euphoric highs, crushing lows, and lots of rebounds.
The couple wed on July 16 at a Las Vegas drive-through chapel, à la America's other it-pairing, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker.
"Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient," Lopez — now Jennifer Lynn Affleck — wrote in her newsletter, On the JLo. "Stick around long enough and maybe you'll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12:30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through with your kids and the one you'll spend forever with."
To briefly recap their two decades-long history: Lopez and Affleck first met on the set of Gigli in 2002. At the time, JLo was married to her second husband, Cris Judd — but that didn't stop the perpetually bummed-looking Affleck from flirting with the singer by taking out full-page ads in Hollywood trade magazines that read, in part: "It has been nothing but an honor and a pleasure to work with you. I only wish I were lucky enough to be in all your movies."
Fast forward a few months and Judd is out of the picture, meaning "Bennifer" is on. The early 2000s equivalent of going Instagram official? Casting your boyfriend in your music video for "Jenny From the Block," a touchstone of Y2K culture that sees Affleck kiss JLo's famously good butt.
By November 2002, they're engaged. But Gigli flops, and Bennifer seems to be on the outs. September 2003: the couple announce they've postponed their wedding and subsequently call the whole thing off entirely.
Lots of stuff happens between '03 and '21. JLo marries, has children with, and divorces Marc Anthony. She briefly dates Drake (?). She gets engaged to and then breaks up with A-Rod. Affleck marries, has children with, and divorces Jennifer Garner. He gets a regrettable midlife crisis tattoo. Covid hits. He quarantines with Ana de Armas. They eventually break up.
In April 2021, the paparazzi catch Affleck going to and from JLo's Los Angeles mansion. Anonymous sources and photographers continue to confirm that Bennifer is definitely hanging out, whatever that entails.
Fast forward to June: they're finally photographed kissing! A month later, they recreate that famous butt scene from "Jenny From the Block," which means things are serious. They get engaged in April 2022.
Let JLo and BAff be a lesson in love: don't give up on your hot ex, who may or may not have cheated on you. Two decades and several divorces later, you might just marry him, drive-through style, in Vegas.
