Jennifer Lopez has a lot going on at the moment. Tomorrow, the singer and actor is releasing a new album, This Is Me ... Now, along with an hour-long musical movie titled This Is Me ... Now: A Love Story. On top of that, a documentary about the making of the album and film, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, releases Feb. 27. The projects, which Lopez self-financed with $20 million of her own money, are centered around her love story with husband Ben Affleck.
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Back when Lopez released the album This Is Me ... Then in 2002, she and Affleck were in a relationship—but that ended in 2004, after they called off their engagement. Now, 22 years later, the reunited pair have been married for a year and a half, which has inspired the album sequel and the film projects.
Promoting the three new releases, Lopez spoke to Varietyabout how they came to be—and one detail in particular stood out to some social media users. The actor and singer showed a clip from The Greatest Love Story Never Told to Variety writer Stephen Rodrick, who reported that the film features Lopez showing love letters that Affleck wrote her to a group of musicians helping her with her album. Affleck had titled the letters "The Greatest Love Story Never Told."
As reported by Variety, Affleck arrives and sees the letters being read by other people, and "seems taken aback." He says on camera, "I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told. If you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, the Air director says, "Things that are private I always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they’re private. So this was something of an adjustment for me."
As the Variety article notes, the first time Lopez and Affleck split, it was in part due to the overwhelming press they received for their coupling, which was dubbed "Bennifer" by the media. When the pair called off their wedding, they released a statement explaining that they were postponing due to "excessive media attention."
In response to Lopez sharing Affleck's private letters, people have spoken out on social media. Some are defending Affleck, some are criticizing Lopez, and others—as if often the case on social media—have found humor in the situation.
"Sharing personal love letters with a bunch of people without the writer’s permission seems like a very weird thing to do," wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).
Another posted, "Literally cannot imagine sharing love letters with strangers, this is so invasive."
Someone else wrote, "She shared Ben’s love letters to her with musicians for 'inspiration' for the album. Embarrassing."
Another X user chimed in, "The fact that Ben wrote private love letters to her about their love story, and then walked in on her and her team pouring over them to turn into an album … when the whole point was he loved how private their love was … says everything about them as a couple to me."
Some users had more comical takes. One commented on Affleck's long-time friendship with Matt Damon, writing, "matt damon would never show everyone the love letters ben affleck wrote him."
Another posted a meme of Affleck looking stressed out while smoking a cigarette and wrote, "Ben after he saw that lady passing his love letters around like peppermint."
There were also predictions made about the future of Affleck and Lopez's relationship: "They will break up soon. JLo kinda looks like an insufferable diva lately," wrote a social media user.
Another said, "These two are gonna divorce and remarry each other so many times."
For her part, Lopez said that she received support from her husband on the project, and that it was the most important thing she could hear.
"He said, ‘You made a movie. For you. You made a great movie. You did it,'" Lopez told Variety of the completion of This Is Me ... Now: A Love Story. “Honestly, I don’t care what happens now. That is the biggest kind of compliment that I could get.”
She also thanked Affleck at the premiere of the film on Feb. 13
"And then there is the person who inspired this for me, who has inspired me my whole life. He just, he inspired an album 20 years ago and I know he hates that I'm doing this right now," she said, as reported by People. "He's just like, 'Please shut up.’ No! And I say no. I say, I love you and thank you for believing in me and helping me believe in myself ... You will never know what it is to be able to share this lifetime and have you be my love."
