Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged – again! The couple no one ever expected to get back together are proving love can work the second time around.
Lopez, 52, debuted a huge green diamond ring in a video via her fan newsletter, On The JLo, wiping away tears of joy. “You’re perfect,” she says in a voiceover. (Affleck, 49, was not in the video.)
The couple sparked engagement rumours earlier this week when JLo was snapped wearing a ring on her wedding finger while shopping in LA. Lopez teased the engagement news as a “major announcement”, encouraging Instagram followers to sign up to the newsletter. Fans were not disappointed.
It would be the second time Affleck has proposed, first popping the question with a $2.5 million Harry Winston in November 2002, two decades ago.
In a rare interview about the rekindled relationship with People in February, Lopez opened up about how she’s “never been better” when finding love again, this time, back in the arms of Affleck.
“It’s just that we’re all in a very beautiful moment,” she told the publication. “I feel so lucky and happy and proud to be with him. It’s a beautiful love story that we got a second chance.”
Affleck and Lopez initially became an item in 2002, quickly rising in fame as Hollywood’s It-couple. But by 2004, the pair ended their engagement and relationship due to the overwhelming media commentary. As we know, the pair rekindled their romance the middle of 2021 to the world’s delight.
Lopez explained that when she and Affleck first began dating again, they “had a little bit of fear”.
“Before we kind of put [our relationship] out there and we were naïve and it got a little trampled,” she said, referring to their first try. This time, Lopez assures fans that things are different between them.
“We both were like, ‘Wow, we’re so happy and we don’t want any of that to come into play again,’” she said.
She continued, “We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience, we’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things. We’re so protective because it is such a beautiful time for all of us.”
“I just feel very happy and lucky to be in a relationship that’s happy and loving, and I want to do everything I can to protect that and keep it safe. It deserves that, it really does… We hold it sacred.”
Lopez explained that she and Affleck have learned many difficult life lessons in the last two decades apart.
“It’s beautiful the way it feels very different than it was years ago,” the singer explained.
“There’s more of an appreciation and a celebration for it, which is nice. When you find somebody and you really, really love them and you get a second chance at that? That is a really rare, precious, beautiful thing and we don’t take it for granted.”
But of course, when two famous faces enter a relationship, things can get tricky. Despite this, Lopez believes that their love can overcome anything that the world throws at them.
“Love rules all. Love always conquers everything—relationships, kids, work, work relationships. It’s all about how loving, open and accepting you can be,” she reassured.
“Not having an ego about things and just embracing all the good, always looking at the positive. When you’re in a good, healthy relationship, everybody benefits from that. Everybody.”
While some fans were thrilled at their revisited romance, some questioned whether Affleck had changed for the best, given his controversial past in the spotlight—Lopez believes he has.
“I’m so proud of him, I’m so proud of the man he’s become that I’ve watched from afar. Being honest with each other, being loving, that’s just the basis of everything,” the Marry Me star said.
She continued, “I feel like he’s at a place in his life where—just like how I feel about myself—it’s been a journey of learning yourself and figuring yourself out, getting to a place where you feel really good on your own and who you are so you can be in a happy, healthy relationship.”
“To see the person, the human being, the man that he is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is—he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be.”
There you have it, six months later and the couple don’t look to be calling it quits anytime soon.
