It’s been one year since Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck finalized their divorce after just two years of marriage. Now, Jennifer herself is speaking out to take responsibility for their split by saying that she’s the one to blame for it.
Jennifer Takes The Blame
While appearing on the “Smartless” podcast this week, Jennifer, 56, reflected on her brief marriage to Ben, 53. She also opened up about how their divorce, which was her fourth, led to her making some major changes in her life.
“There’s been different times where I felt like, whether people outside knew it or not, where I feel like my life blew up in my own face, and it was because of the choices I made,” Jennifer said. “But also because of the fact that I had things that I needed to change about myself, that I didn’t understand or recognize, that was attracting certain things and attracting a certain type of experience into my life.”
“What is going on with you? Forget about everybody else,” she remembered thinking. “There’s nobody to blame here except yourself in a certain way. Not that people don’t behave in a way that’s not great, but what are you doing? What do you have going on? And that was that was a turning point for me. And that was a couple of years ago now.”
Jennifer And Ben’s History
Though their divorce wasn’t finalized until last year, Jennifer actually filed for divorce from Ben on their second wedding anniversary in August of 2024. Though they were only married for two years, Jennifer and Ben’s love story goes back decades.
Jennifer and Ben met in December of 2001 on the set of their infamous movie Gigli. They became engaged the next year, only to shock fans by calling off their planned wedding in 2003 just days before it was set to take place.
Jennifer and Ben each went on to marry and divorce different people. She married the singer Marc Anthony while he married the former Alias star Jennifer Garner.
Jennifer and Marc were married from 2004 until 2014, welcoming twins during that time. Meanwhile, Ben was married to the former Alias actress from 2005 until 2018. During that time, they had three children.
Jennifer and Ben reunited and quickly rekindled their romance in April of 2021. They then married in July of 2022. This was Jennifer’s fourth marriage, while it was Ben’s second.
Sadly, it didn’t take long for their marriage to go off the rails. Jennifer filed for divorce in August of 2024, citing their date of separation as April 26 of that year. Their divorce was finalized in January of 2025.
Jennifer: Divorce ‘Changed Me’
In September of 2025, Jennifer shocked her fans by describing this divorce as being “the best thing that ever happened to me”
“Because it changed me,” she explained to CBS Sunday Morning. “It helped me grow in a way that I needed to grow, become more self-aware. I’m a different person now than I was last year… I realized that the joy is in living and these moments and really embracing life and everything that it brings to you, for the lessons that it brings.”
Jennifer went on to say that once those lessons are learned, “everything just becomes a little bit lighter. And you can really, really fly.”
“I still feel like I want to fly higher,” she concluded.
Divorce is never easy, particularly not when it plays out in the public eye as much as Jennifer and Ben did. We’re glad that each of them seem to be in better places this year, and we hope they can both find love again in the future!