Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck on their second wedding anniversary Tuesday.
The 55-year-old singer has set a separation date of April 26 after months of speculation about her split from the 52-year-old actor.
During their two-year marriage, J-Lo filmed a documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, and at the time it was reported to be a point of contention between the now-exes.
In the film, Ben was “shocked” when he found his musicians digging through his private love letters that J-Lo had given them to look through as inspiration for their next album.
The actor had held on to his correspondence with the singer during his 13-year marriage to Jennifer Garner, then had the letters and emails bound into a book to gift her when they reunited in 2021.
Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck on their second wedding anniversary on Tuesday
During their two-year marriage, J-Lo filmed The Greatest Love Story Never Told and at the time it was reported that there was controversy over the singer sharing Ben’s love letters.
She told the camera: “The book I gave her was down there. She said: ‘I’ve been reading it to people. This is like an inspiration and I’ve been showing them the book.'”
‘I was like, ‘I was showing all the musicians all these letters… and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re calling you Pen Affleck.’
“And I was like ‘oh my god.'”
Ben added that he liked the letters to remain private: “I really found the beauty and poetry and irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story ever told. If you’re making a record about it, it’s like you’re telling it.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, Ben said: “I always felt that private things were sacred and special because they are, in part, private.”
During the documentary, J-Lo stated: “This book is a book that Ben gave me for our first Christmas together. It contains all the letters and all the emails that we wrote to each other 20 years ago and today.”
One note read: ‘The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck 2001-2010…and counting…’
The couple got engaged in late 2002, but broke up a year later before calling it quits for good in 2004.
In the intervening years, J-Lo has married and divorced Marc Anthony, with whom she has 16-year-old twins, Max and Emme.
In the film, Ben was left “bewildered” when he found his musicians rummaging through the private love letters he had sent to J-Lo when they first started dating in the early 2000s (pictured, 2002).
“I thought you’d been showing all the musicians all these letters… and they were like, ‘Yeah, we call you Pen Affleck.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God.'”
Ben and Jennifer Garner began dating in August 2004, before tying the knot the following year. They announced their split in 2015 (pictured in 2014)
Ben and Jennifer Garner began dating in August 2004 and married the following year. They announced their separation in 2015 and their divorce was finalized in 2018.
The couple now co-parent their three children: Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12.
Following the film’s release, insiders dismissed any notion that Jennifer Garner was surprised that Ben had kept his love letters to J-Lo during their marriage, insisting that she was happy for them and was also at peace in her relationship with John Miller.
“Ben would love for the outside world not to know about his love letters, but he’s a romantic, and as much as he loved Jennifer, he never got over JLo,” a source told DailyMail.com.
‘Ben keeps his memories, whether from movies he worked on or from family and relationship moments, he always has what the kids call “receipts.”‘
They continued: ‘No one is surprised by this at all. Jennifer is okay with it, JLo obviously loves it and everyone realises that this was all meant to be.
‘Jennifer and Ben have wonderful children and are both enjoying the relationships they always wanted to have.’
The couple did not sign a prenuptial agreement before tying the knot in July 2022, confidential sources revealed.
This is Jennifer’s fourth failed marriage and Ben’s second.
The couple began to spark separation rumors when they had not been seen together for 47 days.
Speculation about their split continued as they skipped several vacations together over the summer and Lopez also walked the red carpet alone at the Met Gala in May, which was also when Lopez canceled her world tour “to be with her family.”
Since then, the couple has been spending summers on opposite coasts and have not spent their anniversary together.