When Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck rekindled their love in 2021, it marked the happy-ever-after in a Hollywood love story that had started decades before. And having a second chance at happiness with her old flame has restored the actress and singer’s faith in true love.
“I had wondered my whole life as a hopeless romantic: ‘Does true love exist?’ I’ve had my heart broken; I’ve been through three divorces,” Jennifer said last week. “I realised I actually believe that true love does exist. But there was this journey of the 20 years in between that led me back to this place.”
Reuniting with Ben, 51, didn’t just bring joy into her personal life – it also heralded a new chapter of Jennifer’s career by sparking her most personal music project to date.
“What came first, very plainly, was that Ben and I got back together,” said the Jenny from the Block hitmaker creating her new album This is Me... Now, which is out on Friday. , which is out on Friday. A MUSICAL PROGRESSION “We were so happy and in love and couldn’t believe that we were getting this second chance that neither one of us thought we would ever get. As an artist, it inspired me to make music again,” added the mum of two.
© Christopher Polk/Golden Globes 2An evolution of This is Me... Then – Jennifer’s third album, which was inspired by her romance with Ben and released in November 2002 (the same month the pair got engaged for the first time) – the new record marks quite the full-circle moment.
And although most artists are content with releasing a short video to accompany their music, Jennifer, 54, went a step further by creating a genre-bending film to accompany the album. Giving a raw glimpse into her personal life, the Amazon original features the songs from the album as well as scenes acted by the star and a glittering cast of A-listers.
© Kevin Winter“At the heart of it, [the film] is about a person trying to figure out what love is and how to get there,” Jennifer said. “It is a love story, but not in the conventional sense. It’s about learning to love yourself.”
This film has an otherworldly feel; at one point, we see a factory producing human hearts go into meltdown, which, according to the film’s director Dave Meyers, was a metaphor for Jennifer’s pain over breaking up with Ben two decades ago.
© Getty ImagesThese are also human representations of zodiac signs, played by stars including Modern Family’s Sofía Vergara, actress Jane Fonda and
rapper Post Malone, which represent “all the people who comment on your personal life”, Jennifer said. “With me, you add the media on top of that. I always had a Greek chorus commenting on my life, so I said: ‘We need to show this hopeless romantic that there are always people watching.’”
© Stephane Cardinale - CorbisAssembling such a star-studded cast was no easy feat. “They didn’t know what the hell I was having them do, getting in these costumes in front of a green screen,” she said. “But they were really trusting. I was like: ‘I won’t do anything that will make you look crazy.’”
Fittingly, it was Ben who was Jennifer’s biggest cheerleader at times when she doubted herself. “I was like: ‘I don’t do this.’ Ben was like: ‘You do. You write, you direct, you produce, you do all the things. Start stepping into that; start owning who you are.’”
