Jennifer Lopez reveals truth about her 2004 split from now-husband Ben Affleck

Jennifer Lopez (left) and Ben Affleck arrive at the premiere of The Flash on Monday, June 12, 2023 at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles. Photo / Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP

Jennifer Lopez has opened up about her split from Ben Affleck in 2004, claiming the two “crumbled under the pressure” of fame.

The 54-year-old pop superstar eventually tied the knot with Hollywood actor Affleck, 51, in 2022 after rekindling their romance, but they had been due to get married almost 20 years earlier, and have now revealed they felt they had to call the whole thing off just three days ahead of the ceremony because of the “scrutiny” that surrounded their relationship.

Speaking in her new documentary This Is Me...Now: A Love Story, Lopez said: “Ben and I, we broke up three days before our wedding. We had a big wedding planned …14 ushers and bridesmaids, and three days before, we just crumbled under the pressure.”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez arrive at the premiere of Daredevil at the Village Theatre on February 9, 2003. Photo / Getty Images

Affleck added: “When Jen and I broke up before, the catalyst for that was the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life.”

But the Jenny from the Block hitmaker - who has twins Emme and Max, 16, with ex-husband Marc Anthony, while Affleck was married to 13 Going on 30 star Jennifer Garner from 2005 until 2018 and has Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and 12-year-old Samuel with her - admitted their break-up eventually put her and her current husband on a “course to figuring ourselves out and to being better people” by the time they got back together in 2021.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck married in 2022. Photo / On the JLO

When Affleck asked her if he was forgiven for breaking up with her in the first place, she replied: “Yeah, I think I’ve forgiven you all the way. I think I need to forgive myself [for] some things.”

The Marry Me actress revealed just before releasing her ninth studio album This Is Me...Now that she thinks it is a “surreal miracle” she and Affleck rekindled their love.

Speaking to the Metro newspaper, she said: “I wrote This Is Me... Then when Ben and I fell in love 20-something years ago. As fate would have it, we came back into each other’s lives. And on the 20th anniversary of This Is Me... Then, I announced that I would do This Is Me... Now. It was inspired by the surreal miracle that had happened.

“Him coming back into my life and the two of us reuniting in a way that we never expected that was the inspiration for even going in the studio. The album just poured out of me.”