Ben Affleck opens up about relationship with Jennifer Lopez 16 years after they split

Ben Affleck recently revealed that he and Jennifer Lopez still keep in touch despite ending their engagement almost 16 years ago.

He talked to the New York Times about his current relationship with the Super Bowl Half-time Show star.

While talking to the newspaper about his life as an actor, his past relationships and struggles, Affleck opened up about his once-fiance.

He first talked to the NYT about her Oscar’s 2020 snub: “She should have been nominated. She’s the real thing.”
 

Affleck and Lopez got engaged in 2004 after two years together. But before they got to exchange vows, the couple called it quits.

Just weeks after breaking up with the actor, Lopez got back together with Marc Anthony and married him a few months later.

Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Garner that same year.

Reflecting on their relationship, Lopez told E! News in an interview: “I think different time, different thing, who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there.”

She also talked to People about the pressure they felt: “We didn’t try to have a public relationship. We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was just a lot of pressure.”
 

Lopez has since moved on and is currently engaged to retired baseball player, Alex Rodriguez.

Affleck recently revealed he is looking to move forward in a “loving” new relationship because there is no way to fix his romance with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

The troubled actor opened up about his struggles with alcoholism in a frank chat with Diane Sawyer and he got honest about his hopes for “meaningful” love in the future.

Affleck also got candid about the fact he will never be able to mend his romantic relationship with the mother of his three children.

“There are things I would love to go back and change,” he said. “I have regrets. I made plenty of mistakes, some big and some small.

“I wish I could go back in time and change all kinds of things but I can’t.”

And he took the opportunity to confirm that he is not looking for new love on any dating sites, as had previously been reported.

Affleck continued: “I’m not on any websites … Tinder, Grinder, Bumble … I’m not on any of them. And I don’t have any judgment who are but that’s not me.

“I would love to have a relationship that was deeply meaningful and one to which I would be deeply committed.”
 

Since his split from Garner, the actor has been briefly linked with model Shauna Sexton and musician Katie Cherry, while he enjoyed a longer relationship with SNLproducer Lindsay Shookus.

When asked where he hoped he would be in five years’ time, Affleck responded: “Five years from now Ben Affleck is happy and sober … he sees his kids three and a half days a week.

“And has made movies that are interesting to him, directed two he is proud of. And he is hopefully in a stable, loving, committed relationship.”

During his two-part chat with Sawyer, Affleck admitted his pain at the fact his personal issues led to his divorce from Garner.

He explained: “I never thought I was gonna get divorced. I didn’t wanna be a divorced person.

“I really didn’t wanna be a split family with my children and it upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was. And that was so painful and so disappointing.”
 

His candid interview comes after the release of another chat with the New York Times in which the Good Will Hunting star admitted his divorce from Garner was the “biggest regret” of his life.

The actor and his Daredevil co-star were one of Hollywood’s golden couples when they tied the knot in 2005, but by 2018 the pair had called it quits due to Affleck’s battle with alcoholism.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission