Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck called off their wedding three days before they were set to exchange vows, and now the two are opening up about the situation.
In the new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, the singer and her now-husband recounted how things went wrong just days before they were set to say ‘I do.’
“Ben and I, we broke up three days before our wedding,” Lopez tells a group of people. “We had a big wedding planned — 14 ushers and bridesmaids, and three days before we just crumbled under the pressure.”
Affleck agrees, telling the cameras, “When Jen and I broke up before, the catalyst for that was the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life.”
The documentary follows the making of Lopez’s recent musical movie, ‘This is Me… Now, directed by Dave Meyers.
In The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Meyers, who also directed Lopez’s “I’m Real” music video in 2001, recalls, “When her and Ben first broke up, it was catastrophic to her constitution, everything that she wanted from what she understood love to be. For that to not work, for the pressures to break it apart, it just spun her out.”
“For all those years it was really hard, because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life, I felt like I lost the best friend that I ever had,” Lopez agrees. “And I couldn’t talk for so many years, and that was the hardest part.”
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In a conversation with the two, the actor pointed out that in spite of Lopez’s musical experience, their split is the inciting incident that lead to a lot of pain in her life.
“I think for us to move on from that, we have to forgive it, forgive each other. Do you forgive me?” he asks. She responds with just a smile. Later, Lopez expands on those feelings, telling Affleck, “That heartbreak set both of us on a course to figuring ourselves out and to being better people.”
“Do you think you’ve forgiven me all the way?” he asks again.
“Yeah, I think I’ve forgiven you all the way,” she responds. “I think I need to forgive myself some things.”
The pair eventually did get back together in 2021.
“I feel like I came out the other side. I’ve made it through. I’ve made something good of my life. I’m proud of that,” Lopez tells the cameras. “But one of the parts of that was admitting to myself you’re not perfect, you’re not completely whole. And you know what? Something that’s worn and older and broken like a nice leather jacket or an old pair of boots is really beautiful. And kind of embracing the beauty of the scars that we pick up along the way.”
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The Greatest Love Story Never Told will begin streaming on Prime Video Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. ET.
