When newly single Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were spotted hanging out together in early May, sources insisted that relationship between the famous exes was strictly platonic. But I’m sorry — do “just friends” go on weeklong trips to Montana together? Didn't think so.
It seems like Bennifer is back on.
The former couple were reportedly pictured in a car together near a resort in Big Sky, Montana where Affleck has a home.
"[Jennifer] spent several days with Ben out of town," sources told People. "They have a strong connection. It's all been quick and intense, but Jennifer is happy." The two reportedly spent a week vacationing. According to TMZ, after sources in Montana said they "looked like a couple" while they were there, they returned from the trip via private jet and went straight from the L.A. airport to Lopez's house in Bel-Air on May 8.
"[Jennifer] spent several days with Ben out of town," sources told People. "They have a strong connection. It's all been quick and intense, but Jennifer is happy." The two reportedly spent a week vacationing. According to TMZ, after sources in Montana said they "looked like a couple" while they were there, they returned from the trip via private jet and went straight from the L.A. airport to Lopez's house in Bel-Air on May 8.
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The Bennifer heydey was back in the early aughts, when the two met on the set of their movie Gigli in 2002. At the time, Lopez was married to her second husband, Cris Judd, but got divorced and later engaged to Affleck that same year. The power couple planned to get married in September 2003, but postponed the wedding a day before the ceremony, and then officially broke up in 2004. They each separately went on to get married and have kids: Lopez with Marc Anthony, with whom she shares twins Max and Emme and divorced in 2014, and Affleck with Jennifer Garner, with whom he has a son, Samuel, and two daughters, Seraphina and Violet. They divorced in 2018. Lopez was then engaged to former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, but they broke up with in April. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas ended their relationship in January 2021 after less than a year together.
This potential rekindling of such an iconic flame is almost too much for the internet to handle — the memes have been swift and unrelenting.
When Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck take a vacation together in 2021 pic.twitter.com/sWamDb6OIb
— Ringer Dish (@RingerDish) May 10, 2021
i guess Jennifer Lopez is also re-recording her masters https://t.co/SN1bOZyWjD
— Michael Gold (@migold) May 10, 2021
I reject the return of low-rise jeans, but welcome the return of Bennifer discourse
— Emma Gray (@emmaladyrose) May 10, 2021
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck? I don’t care if it’s PR, IT’S CALLED NOSTALGIA AND IM HERE FOR IT. pic.twitter.com/B0GO511x4C
— Lucy on the Ground (@lucyontheg) May 10, 2021
When you find out Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are back together but you're working from home, so you can't get up and rush over to a coworker's desk and be like HAVE YOU HEARD THIS?!
— Dani/Tober: Not a Cat (@thequeengeek) May 10, 2021
One bit of nostalgia that we'd rather not re-live, however, is the invasive and sexist media coverage that has been cited as the cause of Bennifer's initial breakup. In fact, in a podcast interview earlier this year, Affleck reflected on the "ugly" media coverage that his ex-fiancée suffered during their relationship.
"People were so fucking mean about her — sexist, racist," he said. "Ugly, vicious shit was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said. Now it's like, she's lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she fucking should be! I would say you have a better shot, coming from the Bronx, of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than you do of having Jennifer Lopez's career and being who she is at 50 years old today."
A message to the tabloids: Don't ruin this for us.