Jennifer Lopez’s documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” which heavily centered on her reignited romance with her fourth ex-husband, Ben Affleck, probably should’ve been left on the cutting room floor. Meant to highlight their multi-decade love story, the, um, self-indulgent project almost seemed doomed from the start — partly because of the differences between Lopez and Affleck, who have significantly different tolerances of fame and attention (and who divorced the same year of its release).
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While speaking with GQ writer Zach Baron about his and Lopez’s opposing reactions to the documentary — her excitement and his hesitation — Affleck revealed, in so many words, that he participated only for her. “My temperament is to be a little bit more reserved and private than hers,” he said. “As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things.” He continued, “And so I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that? Because exactly what you said is true. I love and support this person. I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that.”
Unfortunately, fans noticed much more than Lopez’s greatness. Instead, they predicted that Affleck and Lopez’s love story was in the last chapter. “My [money] is that they split up as it’s airing,” commented one fan on Reddit. Meanwhile, a second wrote, “When the movie flops she will have an excuse for the divorce.” Given that neither has opened up about the specific cause of their divorce, it’d be unfair to pin it on the scrutiny attached to the documentary. But one thing is clear — they both had doubts about it.
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Jennifer Lopez was nervous about Bennifer-inspired musical
Jennifer Lopez was more excited than Ben Affleck about “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” but it was during the documentary that she expressed doubt about another Bennifer-inspired project: “This Is Me Now … The Musical,” which included references to their romance. In one scene, Lopez even sought encouragement from him about the quality of the musical. “I had good intentions with this, I just don’t want to suck,” she said (via People). “It’s gonna f**king suck a f**king di*k.” Fortunately, Affleck met her worry with a different perspective, replying, “That’s wrong. That’s just inexperience, that you haven’t done this process before.” Oh, why couldn’t they have worked things out?
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Unfortunately, for many viewers, the projects were far from home runs, often conjuring up mocking across social media — especially TikTok, where they were the topic of discussion for weeks. Lopez, of course, had more important issues to contend with than bad reviews — like the crumbling of her and Affleck’s marriage. However, the widespread criticism of the project was not lost on her. “With This Is Me … Now and the project that you mentioned earlier, I felt like, whoa, I got here. I’m good, ” she said about “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” during a conversation with Nikki Glaser for Interview. “I did all the work and look at where I am, and then it was like my whole f**king world exploded,” she added.
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