Happier than ever. Jennifer Lopez is gushing about Ben Affleck — and their future together — in her most candid interviews since the twosome rekindled their romance.
“You have to do what feels good to you all the time. But at the same time, you learn from the past, you do things better the second time,” the 52-year-old told The New York Times in a profile published on Tuesday, February 1. “There’s a part of it that, yes, we’re together. But there’s a part of it that’s not, you know, being so open the way we were when we were so young and in love many years ago.”
Lopez and Affleck, 49, dated from 2002 and 2004 before calling off their wedding. They rekindled their romance during spring 2021 after she ended her four-year relationship with ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez.
“When you’re in things, you do what feels right. And I don’t beat myself up over ‘I wish I had done this differently’ or ‘Did I do too much?’” the Marry Me star continued. “That’s what was comfortable at the time. I did what I did. [Alex] did what he did. And it was fine. The relationship stuff had nothing to do with being public or not being public.”
While the singer married Marc Anthony and welcomed twins Max and Emme, now 13, following her split from Affleck, the Last Duel star shares Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 9, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. According to the NYT, Lopez’s home featured a gingerbread house labeled “Affleck Lopez Family” at the time of the interview.
“You can’t live life and think that things are just mistakes: I just messed up there, I messed up there. No, it’s all lessons,” the musician said. “It’s really what can you extrapolate from it that is going to help you grow and go to the next level of understanding yourself, finding yourself and being able to be at peace with your life, at peace with who you are.”
In her People magazine cover story, which also dropped on Tuesday, Lopez revealed that she’s “never been better” as her romance with Affleck flourishes.
“I just want my future to be full of love and happiness, with my children and my partner,” she said. “I think everybody just wants to be happy, with somebody to go on the journey with and grow old with, and I feel good about that right now.”
Lopez added: ”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.”
Scroll through for more of Lopez’s new quotes about Affleck: