Zac Affleck found a way to poke fun at “cousin” Ben Affleck‘s divorce from Jennifer Lopez after the actor’s iconic Dunkin’ Donuts ad with Jen Affleck.
After the commercial with Zac’s wife was released on Monday, September 15, he replied in the comments section about Jen, 26, and Ben’s banter, writing via Instagram, “Something about Jens and Bens they can never get along.”
Zac’s joke came one year after Lopez, 56, filed to end her marriage to Ben, 53. The former couple tied the knot in July 2022 after rekindling their romance — they were previously engaged from 2002 to 2004. Lopez filed for divorce two years later in August 2024.
“She was very in love with Ben, but love isn’t enough sometimes,” a source told Us Weekly about Lopez at the time. “Things worked out for the best and how they were supposed to.”
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Earlier this year, Ben broke his silence on the high-profile split when asked by GQ why he chose to be involved in Lopez’s 2024 documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The film was a companion piece to her 2024 visual album, This Is Me … Now, and included scenes where Ben discussed their relationship.
“There’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something. But honestly … the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting,” he explained in March. “There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue [about our divorce]. The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’ Well, there is no, ‘This is what happened.’”
Ben concluded: “It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do.”
Ben has since shifted his focus to filming an ad with Jen after she and Zac, 29 claimed they were related to the director. Jen previously claimed on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that Zac was related to Ben and Casey Affleck — specifically that Zac’s dad, David Affleck, is second cousins with the famous actors.
Zac, however, admitted in season 2 that he has “no idea” if he’s actually related to Ben and that it all began as “a running joke” in his family.
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“It’s never been something serious,” he explained in a March episode. “And so, when Jen started telling people that, I did tell her, ‘I don’t think you should say that anymore. I think that’s probably gonna backfire.’”
Zac specifically asked Jen to stop spreading the rumor around. “That is not true,” he told her. “I’ve heard that as a joke. No one’s ever claimed to have some kind of relationship with him besides you.”
Jen bringing the speculation up ultimately led to her and Zac meeting Ben.
“I’m sure his team told him about [the show], and he’s like, ‘Who the heck is she? I don’t know who this is.’ But hey, it led me to doing a commercial with him so I’m happy,” she told Us earlier this month. “It was a full-on shoot. I had a whole script. It was my first acting gig, honestly. I didn’t know my first acting gig would be with an Oscar-winning actor.”
