Ben Affleck was not on hand as Jennifer Lopez celebrated the premiere of her new film, Atlas.
Lopez, 54, walked the red carpet solo at the Monday, May 20, event in Los Angeles. The singer donned a strapless black and white floor-length gown for the evening, opting to style her hair in a high bun. In addition to an array of diamond jewelry, she wore a simple silver band on he ring finger.
While Affleck was not in attendance, Lopez did pose alongside the film’s director, Brad Peyton, as well as costars Simu Liu and Sterling K. Brown.
Speculation about the couple’s status ramped up earlier this month after Lopez attended the 2024 Met Gala — where she served as one of the event’s cochairs — without Affleck, 51. Her solo outing came four months after she walked the red carpet at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards by herself in January before reconnecting with Affleck inside.
While on the Golden Globes red carpet, Lopez addressed Affleck’s moods amid viral paparazzi photos of his facial expressions.
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“Ben is doing alright. You don’t need to worry about Ben, let me just tell you,” she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “He is good. He is happy. He is here — he is nominated. I’m chilling, I don’t understand what people are so pressed for.”
While Lopez was adamant that things were alright between her and Affleck earlier this year, a source exclusively told Us this month the pair hit a speed bump in their relationship as they are on “completely different pages most of the time.”
“Jen and Ben are having issues in their marriage,” the insider explained. “They started having issues a few months ago as Jen had started ramping up work commitments and prepping for her tour.”
A second source told Us that the couple don’t have plans to separate but are taking some time apart. Affleck moved out of his and Lopez’s home and into a new Los Angeles rental property “several weeks ago,” per an additional insider.
Affleck and Lopez have been spotted together on multiple occasions since rumors swirled about their trouble in paradise, including one of their children’s school events on Friday, Mat 17. (Lopez is the mother of twins Max and Emme, 16, whom she welcomed with ex-husband Marc Anthony while Affleck shares Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.)
While at the function, the couple were seen wearing their wedding rings. However, Affleck was photographed without his band earlier that day.
Later that weekend, Affleck and Lopez were photographed driving together in Brentwood, California, on Sunday, May 19.
Lopez and Affleck — who tied the knot in July 2022 — opened up about their different perspectives on sharing their relationship with the public. In her documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, the couple explained how her album This Is Me … Now stemmed from love letters Affleck wrote Lopez throughout their decades-long romance.
“I don’t think he’s very comfortable with me doing all of this,” she confessed. “But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist. He’s going to support me in every way he can because he knows he can’t stop me from making the music I made and writing the words I wrote.”
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While Lopez insisted that Affleck “doesn’t want” to stop her from finding creative inspiration, “that doesn’t mean he’s kind of comfortable being the muse.”
Affleck, meanwhile, revealed that he was surprised by Lopez’s inclination to divulge personal details about their relationship.
“Jen was really inspired by this experience, which is how artists do their work,” he said. “As a writer [and] director, I certainly do the same things. But things that are private I had always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they’re private. So this was something of an adjustment for me.”
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In fact, the pair’s privacy was a sticking point when they rekindled their romance in 2021.
“The catalyst for [our breakup] was this massive scrutiny for our private life,” he recalled. “I had a very firm sense of boundaries initially around the press. While Jen I don’t think objected to it in the way I did, I very much did object to it. Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media.’ Then I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask.”
Of their contradictory stances, Affleck added: “We’re just two people with different approaches trying to learn to compromise.”
