Well, that was invigorating while it lasted . After months of speculation that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck 's marriage was as good as over, Lopez confirmed it by filing for divorce Aug. 20 .
Their date of separation? April 26, according to court documents. Which means, you really can't put much past millions of inquiring minds, the investment in the second coming of Bennifer having been extensive and unrelenting. And once a crack in the recently repaired foundation appeared, inspectors were on 24/7 watch for the whole structure to come tumbling down.
But before the second coming of Bennifer proved that some phenomena are best left to occur once in a lifetime, this was a story of rekindled love, second chances and personal growth . Not to mention the portmanteau that started a really exhausting trend . Because, while to the TikTok generation it seemingly all started on April 30, 2021, the day Affleck was spotted hanging out at Lopez's house , it really began 19 years beforehand.
Within an hour of the alert of a shred of a chance, it was if current events ceased to matter as folks were blissfully whisked away via social media to a simpler time (ironically one that predated social media). There were shades of pre-pandemic 2020, when Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt 's reunion at the SAG Awards also made many people wonder if perhaps the world was slowly but surely righting itself. Reader, the world did not right itself.
But Lopez and Affleck's reunion struck a similar chord—d.