Ben Affleck is one of the actors who has been in the spotlight over his relationships. While the rekindled relationship shared currently between the actor and his wife Jennifer Lopez was given what the latter deemed “a second chance”, their initial romance back in the 2000s suffered at the hands of an unstoppable tabloid frenzy.
The constant media gaze did not entail a foreign endeavor for Affleck. He has dated Gwyneth Paltrow “on and off” between 1997 to 2000, the Justice League talent had a rough idea of the treatment that celebrity couples were required to endure. As a result, the actor knew what to anticipate before starting a relationship with Lopez in 2002 and began to wonder how bad things could get this time around.
The relationship shared between Affleck and Paltrow, owing to their popularity, was under media scrutiny. However, that was not the reason why they split. In an interview, the Shakespeare in Love actress once revealed that she never expected for her to have something concrete with the Batman star; never expected herself to end up with him. Affirming this point, she once stated, “I just think we have a very different sort of value system,” Gwyneth Paltrow in an interview with Howard Stern also revealed that Ben Affleck, then, was not in a healthy position in his life to have a girlfriend or sustain a relationship. Following was her statement:
“I think [my parents] appreciated how he’s [Ben Affleck] super intelligent and he’s really talented and funny, but he wasn’t in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend. They loved him, but they were OK with us not being together,”
Despite their past affair, the two have maintained cordial relationship, with the Iron Man alum even stating the following about Ben Affleck to Howard Stern, “I like him. I’m still friends with him.”
Years later, at the time of the actor’s rekindling with Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t shy away from expressing her happiness and support for the couple in an Instagram Q&A session. There is no doubt that the two talents, who formerly enjoyed more than just a friendship, are now satisfied with maintaining mutual respect for one another.
Following the end of his relationship with Paltrow, Affleck had grown used to constant public attention, even when it came to personal matters. Talking to SFGATE in 2003, the Gone Girl star believed that his association with Jennifer Lopez would attract a similar treatment. He wasn’t prepared for the fact that this time around, the focus on his private life seemed to have increased tenfold. It simply got worse. Here’s what he stated on the matter:
“I’d been through it before with Gwyneth, and I thought, how bad could it get, how much could they do? Well … I found the answer to that question. And … I wasn’t really prepared.”
This marked a stage in Affleck’s life where he was required to accommodate several modifications to his lifestyle. This he needed to do to sustain his relationship with Jennifer Lopez in the 2000s amidst an environment that guaranteed public attention with each move. Of this, he said:
“In the last four or five months, we’ve made a lot of changes, and it, unfortunately, comes down to: I do hide in the backseat of a car. I do try to elude people as best I can. I try not to end up being in any pictures at all that I don’t want to be in. It is startling and very surreal…”
(H/t Fandom Wire)
