Over the summer, it looked like Jennifer Lopez was trying. She showed up for Ben Affleck’s children, she kept her ring on, she kept her head up through all the reports and rumours that she was TOO MUCH, that she was the problem, that Ben finally found a way to escape from the Misery of their marriage, in which she was painted as the Kathy Bates to his James Caan. 

 

On the day of the second anniversary of their wedding in Georgia, though, JLo filed for divorce. Herself, no lawyer, and then this past Labour Day weekend, the unofficial end of one season marking the transition to another season, JLo showed us her ass. For most people, that expression, showing ass, is meant as a flop. For JLo? The ass never flops. The ass is the light, motherf-ckers. The ass is the power. 

Jennifer Lopez on Instagram

“Oh, it was a summer”

 

I love this caption. Because, obviously, there are so many interpretations. We KNOW it was a summer. We know she’s been through it this summer. But this is also JLo, the woman Duana described as Teflon all those years ago – sh-t doesn’t stick to her, she doesn’t let it. The strength of that ass is in the bounce: this bitch has always had bounce-back. And now… she might be getting her lick back. 

 

Let’s start with her taking it to the Daily Mail, which we didn’t know about until they were forced to print a retraction last week about some of the bullsh-t they’ve been saying about her: 

 

The Daily Mail did her dirty, but that’s expected from them. What was less expected – from her perspective – is that her own husband would do her dirty. And we’re now finding out more about that. Since she filed for divorce, we’ve heard about Ben and Kick Kennedy. He’s denying up and down, with an assist from the TMZ, the voice for men, that he and Kick are a thing. That didn’t seem to be the energy when the story first broke and he no-commented for a few days until the backlash began. While we don’t know for sure at the moment how and why this Kick Kennedy story became a thing, it’s undeniable that Ben checked out of the marriage. And now we’re hearing, through a new PEOPLE exclusive, more details about how their marriage fell apart. 

Apparently they’re in mediation with Laura Wasser, a familiar name in the business of celebrity divorces. PEOPLE’s source says “there are some sticking points over financials”. Because, of course, they didn’t have a prenup. And in the two years they were married, they bought a home for over $60 million, he started his own studio, and she had her own movie and music projects on the go. JLo, keep in mind, came into the marriage with a higher net worth than Ben. So for all that trash that was said about him being in a “fever dream” when they were together, implying that he had more to lose when he supposedly lost his mind in love, it’s not like she didn’t have anything to f-cking lose. Both of these people went into the marriage with blinders on. She went into the marriage thinking that he was “not going anywhere”, which is what he had engraved on her wedding ring. And then what happened? 

 

Per PEOPLE’s source: 

“In the divorce petition, Lopez, who has 16-year-old twins Max and Emme with ex-husband Marc Anthony, listed the date of separation as April 26, when she was in the New York area filming Kiss of the Spider Woman and Affleck was back in L.A.

“Ben began moving his things out of their shared home while Jennifer was in New York in April, effectively blindsiding her,” says the source, adding that when Lopez returned to L.A. in May “he wouldn’t answer texts or calls.” (A rep for Affleck has yet to respond to a request for comment.)”

“Effectively blindsiding her”. In modern speak, this is ghosting. He ghosted his own wife? Think about the timing here. During those months where he “blindsided” her and wasn’t replying to her, she was getting hammered online. TikTok had made her a mega villain, literally a viral movement to take her down. It was mean and unfair and you can’t tell me he wouldn’t have been aware of it. So while the outside world was excessively directing hate her way, on the inside, in her private life, she was being ignored by the person who promised to ride or die with her. At least that’s her side of the story. We’ve not heard from him beyond the Kick Kennedy denials and benign reporting about how happy he is. Translation: happy to be free, which kinda goes hand in hand with the earlier reporting at the beginning of the summer about what a prison he was in and how he had to have been out of his mind to be with her. So let’s not pretend that she’s the only one doing the leaking. She’s only just getting caught up. 

 

But there’s a reason I’m posting this article right after Maria’s piece about Jennifer Garner. And it should be obvious. These two Jennifers have more in common now than just their names. They know what it’s like to be warm and then, suddenly, in the shadow of the same man. So I’ll go back to February 2016, Jennifer Garner on the cover of Vanity Fair, and the now infamous interview. It’s the interview when she talks about his shadow. But it was the final paragraph that was the fist pump – when she’s asked about that phoenix tattoo. 

“You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart.’ A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario?” Garner says with a wink. “I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.”

That’s also JLo. JLo will never be the ashes. 

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