This is what you came for, right? It’s what I came for. My phone was probably like yours this weekend, as the group chats were blowing up over Jennifer Lopez’s birthday weekend with Ben Affleck in St Tropez. It’s happy gossip. It’s the BEST gossip. If you are complaining or have some sh-t to say about this gossip, maybe skip the next few articles because this is so good we’re dedicating a couple of posts to this GREAT gossip, as we continue to revel in Bennifer Summer. 

 

Last Friday, the day before JLo’s birthday, I posted a JLo birthday preview. Because, well, there was a tingling in the gossip atmosphere that something would happen. I wasn’t expecting it to be this spectacular, but there was no way that her birthday, the first birthday since the rebirth of Bennifer, that it wouldn’t be an occasion. 

It was also last Friday though that everyone was talking about Bennifer going “Instagram Official”, because Leah Remini posted a photo of them in her own birthday collage. At the time, I questioned whether or not this really counts. Can it really be considered “official” if it’s not on JLo’s feed? Please. 

NOW it’s official. 

 

The money shot in this carousel, of course, is this one:

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on JLo's Instagram 

Look, this bitch, we know, she is unreal. She is so f-cking maddeningly hot, it’s unreal and it’s unfair. But can we talk about him? Can we talk about how hot she makes him? This is a really, really hot kiss photo. Like rom-com movie scenes can barely get it this right with an entire crew choreographing every angle of every caress. I defer to Kara Brown here with one of the best tweets of the weekend: 

There’s also this gold medal tweet: 

 

Twitter was at its best with Bennifer this weekend. With the comedy and with the eagle eyes, because you’ll note in the corner of the first shot she posted in the carousel:

That photo of Ben on a motorcycle with Jen riding behind him is from his Vanity Fair 2003 cover story, an article that is worth the re-read now, after all these years. He was promoting Daredevil, which in itself is another layer of gossip because of course after Bennifer v1.0 ended, he would go on to marry Jennifer Garner. But at the time of the interview, everything was perfect between Ben and JLo. Over half of the interview is about her, about how much he loved her, how much he admired her, and at multiple times, he addressed the skepticism about their relationship and attributed it to race and class, in particular all the talk about her allegedly controlling him, overpowering him: 

“I think this also has to do with race. There's a kind of language that's used about her—the spicy Latina, the tempestuous diva. She's characterized as oversexed. I mean, the woman's had five boyfriends in her whole life! She's a deeply misunderstood woman, in my opinion."

To go back to that photo then, the fact that it was placed there, on a crazy ass yacht in St Tropez, my takeaway, from just that picture in a frame, is that it was Ben who planned this weekend, this trip. 

 

As I wrote last Friday ahead of this birthday, back in the day, back when they were together the first time, Ben went all out for her birthdays and there were also the small details too – like the yo-yo. And this is exactly in that wheelhouse. The trip, the luxury, the big grand gestures, and the small romantic ones too. Like I said, he knows her love language. 

I just wish at some point they could give us a documentary about how all this comes together. Because you can’t just whisk someone like JLo away, lol. You need to coordinate the luggage, the assistants, the bodyguards, all that comes along with her. Which… again… in 2003, it became too much for Ben to handle, at just 29/30 years old, with his unresolved issues. 

Now though? 

These two are leaning in! Together! Recreating moments in a way that feels like they’re inviting us to participate… intentionally? Or unintentionally?

More on that in the next post.