Jennifer Lopez has defied critics with the third part of her media homage to her husband, Ben Affleck.
On Monday, her new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told was dropped on Amazon Prime, following on from This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, a semi autobiographical ‘musical rom-com action sci-fi’ that served as a visual accompaniment to her single, This Is Me… Now.
The singer, 54, has been lauded by critics for the documentary, which they say ‘delivers precisely the revelatory perspective that its counterparts lack’, yet she admitted those around her thought she was ‘stupid’ for taking on the three-part tribute.
What seems most apparent, however, as she takes on her critics in the show, is one of the biggest sceptics of her project is her husband.
While Lopez is hellbent on declaring her love for Affleck, she admits her husband is ‘uncomfortable’ being her muse, while the actor, 51, openly confesses he finds their moments together ‘sacred and special because it’s private’.
The couple’s love story started in 2002 when they dated while filming the movie Jersey Girl. They became engaged the following year but broke up in 2004.
Yet it was meant to be for the couple, known collectively as Bennifer, who found their way back to one another in July 2021, marrying just one year later.
They detailed the highs and lows of their rekindled romance in Lopez’s new documentary, with Affleck revealed he initially asked his wife to keep their relationship offline when they decided to give things another ago.
While navigating their reconciliation, two decades following their first engagement, the two-time Oscar winner, 51, admitted he had zero interest in becoming a fixture on his 54-year-old wife’s social media accounts.
‘Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’ the actor recalled.
‘Then I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, “Well, I don’t like the water.”‘
He continued: ‘We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.’
Ultimately, Lopez respected his wishes, and has only posted a small handful of snaps featuring him, including a raunchy shirtless photo last Father’s Day and a sweet video of them singing Sam Cooke’s (What A) Wonderful World in the car on his birthday.
During the documentary, the mother-of-two acknowledged Affleck’s discomfort with stepping in the spotlight as a couple after facing intense media scrutiny when they first dated between 2002 and 2004.
‘I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this,’ she said. ‘But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I made… he doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.’
Elsewhere in the documentary, Lopez burst into tears as she confessed what her husband made her see in herself was ‘moving’.
Welling up, she revealed: ‘What he said and what he saw in me, and what he made me believe about myself, only comes from love.
‘Because nobody else could have made me see that about myself. It’s very moving.
‘Because I didn’t think much about myself and so the world didn’t think much of me. That lined up.’
She said of their reunion: ‘We’re totally different people now and we’re the same and we have the same love 100 percent. Like I’d never fallen out of love with you. I had to just put it over here.’
Affleck also addressed his alcohol issues in the documentary, comparing his struggle with his wife’s ‘need for love’.
He shared: ‘The thing you discover, like you do with alcohol, is that there isn’t enough alcohol in all the liquor stores in the world to fill up that thing.
‘In Jennifer’s case I don’t think there’s enough followers or records or any of that stuff to still that part of you that still feels a longing and a pain.’
Lopez went on to share the incredibly romantic gift her husband gave her for their first Christmas back together.
She gushed that Affleck had made a book with every letter and email they’d ever exchanged spanning two decades, which he titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
In December, she admitted they ‘both have PTSD’ from the glare of the spotlight on their first romance.
After their broken engagement, they both went on to marry and divorce other people before eventually finding their way back into each other’s arms.
She shared that ‘we both have PTSD’ from their initial experience, but explained that in their present life as a married couple they’re ‘older’ and ‘wiser.’
J-Lo added: ‘We also know what’s important, what’s really important in life, and it’s not so much what other people think. It’s about being true to who you are.’
Lopez and Affleck first met on the set of Gigli and embarked on a relationship that became a flashpoint of attention.
Their eye-catching public appearances, accompanied by the box office disaster of Gigli, were the subject of constant conversation.
Jennifer poured fuel on the fire with the release of This Is Me… Then, which was dedicated to her boyfriend and featured songs about him including Dear Ben.
‘Bennifer’ became a lightning rod for adulation and then mockery, including a memorably acidic parody of them on an episode of South Park.
Trey Parker, co-creator of the cartoon, later asserted he heard gossip that the production assistants started quoting the spoof on the set of one of J-Lo’s films.
‘She got so mad and had to fire people,’ alleged Trey, who is also one of the voice stars on the show. ‘But she kept hearing it in the distance.’
The couple got engaged near the end of 2002 but broke the engagement in late 2003 before ending their relationship entirely in 2004.
In the intervening years, Lopez married and divorced her third ex-husband Marc Anthony, with whom she welcomed her 15-year-old twins Max and Emme.
Meanwhile, Affleck married and divorced Jennifer Garner, with whom he amicably co-parents three children – Violet, 18, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11.
The Greatest Love Story Never Told is available on Amazon Prime.
How Jennifer Lopez finally got it right! Critics hail The Greatest Love Story Never Told as a triumph as they say the ‘raw’ and ‘compelling’ documentary ‘delivers’ where its counterparts failed
Jennifer Lopez’s The Greatest Love Story Never Told has received early rave reviews as critics praise the ‘raw and vulnerable’ offering.
The Prime Video doc is the third installment of her $20M media homage to her husband Ben Affleck, which includes the semi-autobiographical film, This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, chornicallingher highly scrutinised love life.
The film, which was released earlier this week, was a dubbed a ‘musical rom-com action sci-fi’ that served as a visual accompaniment to her single, This Is Me… Now.
The companion piece was panned for its ‘truly chaotic’ plot, while others slammed the star for spending so much on the self-funded ‘vanity project’.
However, the response so far to the third part of the project has been surprisingly positive in comparison, as critics branded the doc ‘compelling’, and say it ‘delivers precisely the revelatory perspective that its counterparts lack.’.
Those around J-Lo encouraged her to ditch the project, as many of her celebrity pals declined to be involved in her film and even her husband Ben tried to sway her.
While JLo is hellbent on declaring her love for Ben, she admits her husband is ‘uncomfortable’ being her muse, while the actor, 51, openly confesses he finds their moments together ‘sacred and special because it’s private’.
But, it looks like Ben and the others will be left eating their words following the release of the third and final part of the album-cycle media offensive.
This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, which currently has a 95 per cent score, on Rotten Tomatoes, was described as ‘indecently compelling, by The Times.
A review in the publication, which awarded it four stars, admitted: ‘It’s not quite warts and all: Lopez is far too canny a myth-maker for that.
‘But it’s nonetheless a revealing reminder of the kinks and cracks that made the Bennifer saga so engrossing in the first place.’
Meanwhile, said Variety the in depth look at JLo’s life exposes ‘her ambitions, responsibilities and insecurities with a merciless but deeply rewarding rawness.’
The reviewer comments that the project – which originally had a budget of $30million reduced to $20million once the singer had to finance it herself – was ‘surprisingly candid’ for lifting the curtain on the struggles she had producing it.
While This Is Me.. Now: A Love Story was ill received by critics, the review stated that the ’emotional weight of the latter deepens the entertainment value of the former.’
The critic said: ‘Harnessing not just the drive that made her a superstar but the fragility (especially personal) inherent in its maintenance…
‘Jason Bergh’s film accomplishes something unexpected: offering audiences a truly new way to look at her.’
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Rebecca Lawrence