Ben Affleck has remained tight-lipped about his split from Jennifer Lopez – but a resurfaced interview has shared a huge insight into why their marriage could have ended.
The 52-year-old spoke to Playboy Magazine in 1999 and admitted that he was often to blame for his relationships ending.
Ben admitted that despite becoming "unhappy" in a relationship, he would keep quiet and carry on before developing "a passive-aggressive rage".
"It's not like I was a womanizer or physically abusive or psychologically abusive or whatever," a then-27-year-old Ben told the publication.
"It's just that these relationships never end well. I think what happens is, I end up wanting to be out of the relationship."
He explained: "During the course of a relationship, if you get dissatisfied and unhappy and don't say something, if you don't deal with it right then, it just festers and stays there.
© Getty Images"So instead of saying, 'Look, don't do that, please don't act this way,' I go along with it until I just don't want to be in the relationship at all. Then I create some incident or do something or just don't call. And then she's [expletive]."
Ben didn't put the blame on his ex-girlfriends though. He added: "I can't necessarily blame her at that point.
© Getty Images"I've developed such a passive-aggressive rage that I have no sympathy and tell her, 'Well of course I didn't call you. If you weren't such a nagging, shrewish harpy I'd call you.'
"If I were the next guy to go out with them, I'm sure I would be nodding in agreement about what an [expletive] their ex-boyfriend was."
Three years after the interview, Ben began his first relationship with Jennifer.
© Getty ImagesTheir whirlwind romance began in 2002, and they quickly became one of the most talked-about couples in Hollywood.
Following a brief engagement, they broke up in 2004, only to reconnect in 2021, nearly two decades after their initial split.
© InstagramAfter a short three-month engagement, the couple surprised fans by announcing they had tied the knot in a low-key Las Vegas wedding at the Little White Chapel on July 16, 2022.
They then hosted a more lavish, three-day wedding party at Ben's estate in Georgia on August 20, 2022.
© InstagramSpeaking of her wedding day, which took place 18 years after they called off their first engagement, the Marry Me actress wrote in her On the JLo newsletter: "Some old wounds were healed that day and the weight of the past finally lifted off our shoulders. Full-circle — and not at all the way we planned it. Better."
However, after months of speculation that their marriage was in trouble, the news was confirmed when Jennifer filed divorce papers in August after two years of marriage.
© Getty ImagesWhile she listed their date of separation as April 26, she waited until the second anniversary of their Georgia wedding to file the papers.
Jennifer reportedly filed the divorce papers herself in LA County Superior Court without an attorney present.
© GettyThe documents state that Jennifer requested that neither she, nor Ben, be awarded spousal support.
According to TMZ, the former couple do not have a prenuptial agreement, meaning their individual earnings from the past two years could be considered community property during the divorce proceedings.
