Why Bennifer 2.0 is the Hollywood fairy tale we need

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are engaged for the second time following their 2004 split

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on the set of 'Jersey Girl' in New York in November 2002. AFP

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  In November 2002, Ben Affleck proposed to Jennifer Lopez with a 6.10-carat fancy intense pink diamond from Harry Winston. Getty Images

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck pictured after her performance on NBC's 'Today Show' in New York in December 2002. Reuters

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attend the premiere of 'Maid in Manhattan' in December 2002 in New York. Reuters

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend the Sundance Film Festival in January 2003 in Utah. AFP

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend the premiere of 'Daredevil' in Los Angeles in February 2003. Reuters

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck arrive for the 75th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles in March 2003. AP

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attend a Los Angeles Lakers game in California in May 2003. EPA

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend the premiere of their film 'Gigli' in Los Angeles in July 2003. AP

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attend the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in Boston in October 2003. EPA

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck pictured in New York in October 2003. Getty Images

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck walk the streets of Capri, Italy, during a holiday in July 2021. EPA

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are spotted at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021. Getty Images

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez arrive at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021. Getty Images

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend a screening of 'The Last Duel' during the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021 in Venice, Italy. Getty Images

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021. The couple has rekindled their relationship 17 years after calling off their engagement. Getty Images

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attend a photo call for a special screening of Lopez's film 'Marry Me' on February 8, 2022. AP Photo

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  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are seen on April 23, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. The pair announced that they were engaged for a second time, in early April. GC Images

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez married in a small Las Vegas ceremony on July 16, 2022. Getty Images

Cast your mind back to 2002.

Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol, Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles was on repeat on the radio, low-rise jeans were all the hipbone-baring rage, and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake broke up.

But hands down, the cherry on top of the 2002 pop culture cake was the coming together of two of the biggest stars on the planet, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, aka Bennifer.

Bennifer hit the headlines

Between 2002 and 2004, the first celebrity couple to be so effectively portmanteau’d they created their own gossip cottage industry (beating Brangelina by seven years, and Kimye by 10), Bennifer were the epitome of shiny, glamorous #couplesgoals before goals were even a thing.

There was no Twitter, no Instagram, no Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit nor Discord. If you wanted to gorge yourself on the junk food diet of Hollywood gossip, you turned to celebrity magazines (among which I worked at the time) which sold in their millions, to devour celeb sightings, wardrobe malfunctions and the A-list falling out of the Chateau Marmont.

And Bennifer were the Hollywood royalty ruling those front pages.

Bye-bye Cris, hello Ben

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's romance became tabloid fodder, and they would later blame 'media attention' for calling off their planned 2003 wedding. AFP

After meeting on the set of 2002’s Gigli, a smitten Affleck would take out full-page ads in trade magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter in which he gushed: “I really liked working with her and have been so impressed with her acting skills.”

He said: “I thought I’d write a paragraph saying what a professional, decent person I think she is and how kind she is.”

And if you find yourself thinking 'Why would someone be surprised that their colleague is a decent human being?' then you’ve clearly never spent any time in Hollywood (or writing about / obsessing over it, like I have).

Ben and J-Lo were open about their relationship at her July 24 birthday party, and two days later she filed for divorce from husband number two, back-up dancer Cris Judd, after eight months of marriage.

'Rumours (don’t) got me laughing, kid'

In the music video for 'Jenny From The Block', Ben Affleck was ridiculed for playing J-Lo's doting boyfriend. Lopez would later try to remove the video from MTV and VH1 playlists. Photo: Epic Records

It’s horribly Hollywood that something so good should have been the catalyst for something so bad, in this case the beginning of the end of Bennifer. And the looming spectre of love gone wrong came in the shape of the music video for Jennifer’s November 2002 hit, Jenny From The Block.

If the lyrics of which — while admittedly lacking a certain self-awareness on J-Lo’s part — created an era-defining bop, it was the video that truly lodged itself into the collective pop-culture consciousness.

Giving off big meta, art-imitates-life energy, Affleck was filmed filling up Lopez’s car with petrol, worshipping her famous derriere on the deck of a yacht, and helping her find a lost earring.

The tabloids felt this was a step too far, and in a firestorm of misogyny and misandry, Affleck was cast in the real-life role of browbeaten boyfriend reduced to doing nice things for his girlfriend, while Lopez was the boss who had turned one of Hollywood’s leading action men into a simp who liked to do nice things for his girlfriend. Oh, the humanity!

The video would be so inextricably linked to their downfall, that J-Lo tried to get it removed from rotation at both MTV and VH1 in 2004 post-split.

Liz and Dick for the 2020s

The rest of the relationship is Hollywood folklore. The November 2002 engagement, Affleck’s July 2003 visit to a strip club, and the August 2003 critical and commercial failure of Gigli, all culminating in the September 13, 2003, announcement that the wedding would be postponed, for which they blamed “excessive media attention”.

Apparently, Jenny from the block's “everyone’s got to make a living” ethos didn't apply to the media.

Not since Julia Roberts runaway brided Kiefer Sutherland in 1991, just two days before their wedding, running off with his best friend, Jason Patric, had the celebrity wedding industrial complex been so thoroughly rocked.

By January 2004, the pair had split, with J-Lo marrying Marc Anthony five months later, and Affleck launching Bennifer II alongside Jennifer Garner in October.

Now, with Affleck’s sidewalk laughter-fest with Anna DeArnas but a glitch in the Matrix, and Lopez's engagement to Alex Rodriguez called off, Bennifer 2.0 have made their way back to one another.

When, in the name of all that is Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, does this ever happen? And people say fairy tales aren't real.

Celebrities who have married in 2022 — in pictures:

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  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez first married in Las Vegas in June and then again in Georgia on August 20. AP

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  Sheryl Sandberg and her husband Tom Bernthal married on August 20 in a Western-themed wedding in Wyoming, US. Getty / AFP

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  Sarah Hyland, left, and Wells Adams married in an outdoor ceremony in California on August 20. Invision / AP

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  Rita Ora and New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi got married in a secret wedding ceremony on August 8. AP Photo

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  Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons got married in Jamaica in early July after six years together. Getty Images / AFP

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  Alexandra Daddario and Andrew Form officially tied the knot this June at New Orleans' Preservation Hall. Invision for AMC Networks / AP Images

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  American comedian Aziz Ansari married Danish forensic data scientist Serena Skov Campbell in early June in Tuscany, Italy. Getty / AFP

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  Britney Spears wore a Versace gown and Charlotte Tilbury make-up for her wedding to Sam Asghari. Photo: Charlotte Tilbury

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  South Indian superstar Nayanthara and director Vignesh Shivan on honeymoon in Bangkok, Thailand after their wedding in early June. Photo: Instagram / wikkiofficial

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  Actors Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead tied the knot among friends and family during a low-key outdoor ceremony at their home in the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles. AFP

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  Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz had a star-studded wedding in April. Getty via AFP

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  Jack White and Olivia Jean married in an impromptu ceremony onstage in Detroit in April. Photo: Jack White / Instagram

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  Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker had a wedding in Las Vegas after the Grammys 2022 awards in April. Getty via AFP

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  'Harry Potter' star Bonnie Wright married Andrew Lococo in California in March. Photo: Bonnie Wright / Instagram

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  South Korean actors Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin (born Kim Tae-pyung) married in March. Getty

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  Dubai radio presenter Kris Fade married long-term partner Brianna Ramirez in a lavish ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai, at Jumeirah Beach Residence in March. Photo: Facebook

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  Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad revealed in April that they had secretly married in February. Getty via AFP

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  Bollywood star Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar got married in Khandala, India, in February. Photo: ShibaniDandekar / Instagram

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  Mona Kattan and Hassan Elamin wed in Dubai on Twosday, or 22/2/2022. Photo: Mona Kattan / Instagram

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  Bollywood actress Mouni Roy married businessman Suraj Nambiar, who lives in the UAE, in a traditional South Indian ceremony at a Goa resort in January. AFP

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  'Orange Is the New Black' star Danielle Brooks married Dennis Gelin in a January ceremony in Miami, Florida. Photo: Danielle Brooks / Instagram

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  American actress Ricki Lake wed third husband Ross Burningham in January in an 'intimate' ceremony at their home. Photo: Ricki Lake / Instagram