Ben Affleck says he relates to his latest film character’s difficult love life, especially when it comes to reading signals.
The Oscar winner, 52, discussed his role as Christian Wolff in The Accountant 2 in a recent press junket and noted that Christian’s relationship struggles are something he understands.
“Here’s a guy who’s trying to figure out — he wants to have a relationship with a woman, he’s trying to figure out how to do that, like, how to put yourself out there,” Affleck said of his character. “You know, he’s not comfortable extending himself. He doesn’t really know how to flirt exactly. He’s not comfortable … like so many of us.”
The Argo director went on to add, “It’s not easy for anyone figuring out relationships, particularly at the very early part, where you’re trying to gauge, ‘What does this signal mean? Is this person looking at me? Do they like me? Am I going to humiliate myself if I go over there?’”
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s Relationship Timeline
Affleck’s discussion of the vagaries of dating comes three months after he finalized his divorce from Jennifer Lopez. The Air actor and the pop star, 55, tied the knot in July 2022 after reconnecting the year prior. The former couple originally dated in the early 2000s after meeting on the set of Gigli and got engaged for the first time in November 2002. They were set to tie the knot in September 2003 but called off the wedding days before the ceremony and split months later.
Lopez filed for a dissolution of marriage in August 2024 after months of speculation about her and Affleck’s relationship status and listed their date of separation as April 26, 2024. In May of that year, they had not been spotted together for more than 40 days, and that same month, Us Weekly confirmed that Affleck had moved out of the pair’s shared home.
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“J. Lo is starting to feel like herself again,” an insider told Us of Lopez in February. “She’s making sure she is happy and that she’s being a good mom.”
Lopez was previously married to Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998, Cris Judd from 2001 to 2003 and Marc Anthony — with whom she shares twins Max and Emme — from 2004 to 2014. Affleck, for his part, was married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018, and they coparent their three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.
