There’s something particularly painful about the news that — on the exact day of their wedding ceremony in Georgia in 2022 — Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck . Up until now, we were intimately invited to be a part of their love story. Lopez, as documented in Stephen Rodrick’s profile for this magazine, took the risk of her career with the album and feature film “This Is Me.
.. Now.
” The record is end-to-end love songs about a journey of discovery that led Lopez to forgive herself, and made her ready to accept Affleck’s love once again. (The pair had been together from 2002 to 2004, and even got engaged; reunited, they first wed in a Nevada chapel in July 2022, an event chronicled in Lopez’s song “Midnight Trip to Vegas,” followed by a private ceremony at Affleck’s Georgia compound the next month.) And the film, into which Lopez sunk $20 million of her own fortune, brings Lopez still further — she finds Affleck, making a cameo as her onscreen lover, in its final moments.
The film came with a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary called “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” in which Lopez and Affleck discuss the inspiration behind her opus. In all, that’s three distinct creative projects dedicated to the love these two have shared. “This Is Me.
.. Now,” in all three of its forms, was rejected by the public.
Lopez’s tour in support of the album was rebranded to be a greatest-hits set — “Let’s Get Loud,” but let’s.