After almost an entire summer of divorce speculation, yesterday’s confirmation that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s marriage is officially over couldn’t have been a surprise. If you’re a regular visitor here at LaineyGossip, you know that we’ve been bracing for it every weekend, wondering if Bennifer would play it traditional and make it a Friday gossip dump at the end of the day when everyone’s logged off and packed it up. Maybe the only surprise, then, is that it happened on a Tuesday, typically a heatscore of a gossip day because everyone is paying attention. 

 

TMZ broke the news just after 630pm ET/330pm PT yesterday after JLo filed the paperwork, on the second anniversary of their wedding ceremony in Georgia. Was that intentional, with added emphasis that they are not just over but O.V.E.R.? Or was the timing more strategic – you can bury it on a Friday when everyone’s distracted by the weekend or you can bury it on a weekday when so much attention is being focused on politics and the Democratic National Convention, especially since last night was such a big deal. After all, it was Michelle Obama who was primetime last night and the top story this morning. Like, of course Bennifer is being talked about but they’re not the only headline right now. In fact, they might even be the second headline. It’s not impossible, then, that she was taking advantage of the political focus. 

According to TMZ, JLo filed without a lawyer and there is no prenup…which is crazy considering that they both have considerable assets. But it also tells you that two years ago they both were all in on their commitment, and not just her. Ben Affleck is not a Hollywood amateur; he co-founded his own STUDIO with Matt Damon around the time of the marriage; he's represented by some of the most successful agents and managers in the business. And he too went into the marriage without a prenup! 

 

Will the absence of a prenup be an issue going forward? They still haven’t sold their house and TMZ says they’re not talking right now. But, again, no lawyers are involved – yet – which would suggest that, at the moment, they may not be on great terms but it’s not to the point of full blown ugly. As we have seen, JLo has been spending time with Ben’s kids, their kids are still hanging out with each other, and she stopped by his place on his birthday, so there have been efforts, at least, to keep it as civil as they can. 

 

But she does appear to want to make it clear that she tried and that he didn’t want to. 

“…a source tells PEOPLE that she came to the painful conclusion that "it's time to move on" for various reasons.

"She's very disappointed and sad, but Ben hasn't given her any signs that he wants to continue their marriage. He hasn't shown any commitment and interest in making their marriage work. It's gotten to the point that she just needs to look out for herself," says the source.

The date listed in the divorce documents is April 26. This tracks with what I posted a few weeks ago about the timeline of the split. It’s easy to look back now and be all like, the signs were all there, but in the months leading up to April, I’m not convinced that it was as obvious as some people are saying. 

 

The Super Bowl was on February 11 and one of the big commercials during the game was Ben’s latest for Dunkin’. He produced it through Artists Equity – and this is important to note because it was HIS deal, HIS project. And the ad opens…. ON HER. She’s the first person you see in the spot, until it cuts to him in a car with Jack Harlow and we find out that the whole premise of the motherf-cker is that he’s recruited all his friends, including Matt Damon and Tom Brady… TO GET ON HER ALBUM. 

You know, the new album that’s supposedly the source of so much embarrassment for him? He built a whole ass f-cking commercial around that album and had her star in the ad from which he profited. 

So that comes first. Two days later, February 13, is the premiere for the album, This Is Me…Now and the accompanying film that she funded herself and that HE CO-WROTE. Bennifer arrived together on the carpet and he was smiling. He also kissed her. And then on stage she cried while thanking him. 

 

That’s, like, two months before the cited date of their breakup. After that she took her kids to Japan for their birthday and then, when she got home to Los Angeles, Bennifer was papped kissing and it looked pretty passionate. You can see those photos here. 

Pretty much exactly a month later, at the end of March, when she was in New York filming, this is Bennifer, his arm around her, backstage at The Outsiders: 

So I’m having a hard time buying the theory that he wanted out a long, long time ago. Like well before the release of her album and the film and the documentary, which he produced, by the way. Unless he did all that with a gun to his head. Because that’s how this marriage has been characterised – like he’s been a hostage to a woman who kept putting their relationship on blast when he was uncomfortable with it. I don’t know about you but when I watch that Dunkin’ commercial, sorry, HIS Dunkin’ commercial, in which HE's auditioning to be on her album, it’s not really giving hostage. 

 

So there’s seems to be a three week period in April in which it all unravelled rather quickly. And it’s sad. It has to be sad. Unless you’re so cynical to the point where you think that everyone in Hollywood is full of sh-t no matter what they do and nothing is to be believed, it’s sad when two people go into a relationship with hopes and dreams and it doesn’t work out. We may never know in this case why it didn’t work out. But that hasn’t stopped people from assuming that it was her fault, that she’s the villain and/or the clown. I mean if we’re really going to talk about it that way, both of them were clowns here. I stress this because it’s always JLo who gets clowned for all the times she falls in love and how much she loves love and how stupid she can be in love. Yes, she loves love. But he also loves love! We’ve been watching this man love love for 25 years. Are we going to talk about him in the same way that we talk about her?! 

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Also attached - JLo shopping on the weekend and Ben at his office yesterday in LA.