It’s been–what?–three weeks or so since the speculation around Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s marriage blew up? At the start of it the rumours were all about how it was definitely over because they hadn’t been seen together and he seemed to have moved into another home. Then they were seen together, and the reporting has gone from split to imminent split as they did make a couple of appearances, finally, but also spent the Memorial Day long weekend apart.
That brings us to yesterday when the two of them showed up for his oldest child Violet’s high school graduation event. PEOPLE has the photos here. On the one hand, the fact that JLo is still a presence in the lives of Ben’s kids would indicate that whatever is happening between them, she’s welcome to the family gatherings, she’s involved, there is no separation on that front. Afterwards, Bennifer was also seen at Jennifer Garner’s home, and they left from there together, making their way to where Ben has been staying, but according to the paps she left soon after.
So the limbo continues. And now it’s another Friday – as I mentioned earlier this week, because of this Bennifer uncertainty, Fridays now, for those of us who work in gossip, are all about bracing. Bracing for a classic Friday afternoon news dump, a go-to legacy move for celebrities wanting to bury a negative announcement in the weekend rush. It’s become less and less effective in these digital times but they still try it in the hopes of minimising as much heat as they can, especially for the sake of their children. And not to make it about us but, like, it’s summer weather for many of us in North America and nobody wants to work longer than they have to on a Friday afternoon but now we have to keep one eye on Bennifer in order to be able to cover it in the event they do try to pull one on a Friday.
Here's where I’m coming in with the shameless plug, though, because now that we have our Substack, The Squawk, we can open up the conversation quickly in a chat thread should it really go down that way.
Back to the summer weather though…
Summer holidays are beginning soon, and this is also a factor. That’s also why the calendar is critical. IF Bennifer does have something to say and IF this marriage is ending, they’d probably hold out until all their children are out of school to lessen the impact on their lives. Every school district varies with when the last day of school is. In Beverly Hills it’s this week, in Santa Monica it’s in two weeks. So IF it’s coming, the alert remains in effect through June. And… I guess… beyond? JFC, please, is this going to draw out the whole summer?
We're Squawking about Bennifer today. Join us! (app link here)
