A Timeline Of Bennifer In Celebration Of J.Lo & Ben Affleck Being Back Together

Tell us you love Punkee without telling us you love Punkee. Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. It'll mean the world.

Maybe we’re losing it in lockdown, or maybe we’re just yearning for the simpler time of 2002, but Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are officially back together and we don’t know how to feel about it.

In May this year, after being spotted together, “sources” said they were just friends. But over the weekend, on J.Lo’s 52nd birthday, she dropped the confirmation in an IG post.

Just as you’re going about your business, laying on the couch of your dilapidated rental scrolling through your phone, BAM, you’re hit with a photo of Bennifer pashing. Rude. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jennifer Lopez (@jlo)

But should we care? Is this one of those moments when you spot your mate out with her ex and give her a look that says everything you need to say, sans words? Are we supposed to remind her of how they got unengaged? Or the creepy way he followed up with a girl who unmatched him on Raya? And that, honestly babe, he’s better left back in the early ’00s along with the fluffy newsboy caps? 

Or should we all just see it as a fresh start, be happy for her, and move on? Can we cycle back to relationships like we can fashion trends? Maybe 2002 wasn’t so terrible after all? I mean, the stilettos-and-cargos look wasn’t that bad, was it? 

Too many questions.

Let’s recap J.Lo and Ben Affleck’s relationship and reassess like the relationship experts we know we’re not.

It was 2002, phones had buttons (so many buttons), and Affleck and Lopez met on the set of Gigli. Lopez was married, Affleck took out a full-page ad in Variety that said “…I only wish I were lucky enough to be in all your movies,” and she and Affleck were spotted  kissing at her birthday party a couple of months later (hmm… almost exactly 20 years on from this weekend’s IG post. Interesting.)

J.Lo filed for divorce and later in the year released the iconic Jenny from the Block music video, which recreated their relationship through the lens of the paparazzi, but also imagined its misrepresentation – they were plagued by media attention at the time, and photos of them had sold to People magazine for $75,000.

A couple of months later, the It couple were engaged. But by mid-2003 were rumours swirling that Affleck had cheated – they both denied it – and later in 2003 they announced they were postponing the wedding because of the media attention surrounding the big date.

By early 2004, their split is confirmed in a statement. They move on and have respective relationships, kids, divorces, and then early this year, appear to be spending time together again.

A fan theory now speculates the couple are recreating the famous music video shot for shot, thanks to the recent paparazzi images that mimic scenes from the clip, which raises the question if Bennifer are indeed legitimate or they’re just playing us all. Are they in a throuple with the media? Are they currently rekindling the quasi-poly relationship?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Caissie St.Onge (@instacais)

Why do we all care so much right now?

The reason why we all care about Bennifer 2.0 is because we all have exes, and some of us also like the idea of being on a yacht one day, bombing the internet with hot pash photos. But was that breakup for nothing? Did we all make it through the last 17 years, two failed Bennifer movies, and several relationships to find there’s literally no one else left?

Dating can certainly feel like that – when you look around and it feels like there’s nobody, so you scroll your ex’s IG, forget about why your relationship crumbled, and fantasise about getting back together. But you’ve both grown! Maybe things would be different this time?!

Does Bennifer prove you can get back with that ex?

Lopez said of her relationship in 2016, “I think different time, different thing, who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there.”

The thing that we lament is, we want to know J.Lo can be so fine without Affleck. And now they’re back together, so what does that mean for us and our creepy exes?

The jury is still out, but we will be watching this space with ample curiosity.