Doing it differently. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck married in a Las Vegas ceremony over the weekend that was intentionally very different from the wedding they planned nearly 20 years earlier.
Lopez, 52, and Affleck, 49, obtained a marriage license on Saturday, July 16, in Clark County, Nevada, per legal records, and they married that weekend, a source confirmed to Us Weekly on Sunday, July 17.
“They both are so comfortable with each other and make each other so happy, so they don’t want to wait any longer,” the insider explains exclusively to Us.
The “Marry Me” singer and the Argo director decided that getting married in Sin City would make the nuptials more enjoyable. “They both thought it was a fun and casual way to tie the knot,” the source adds.
The wedding was very different from the massive affair the two first planned — and eventually called off — in 2003.
The New Yorker and the Boston native connected in early 2002 while filming Gigli. After Lopez filed for divorce from her second husband, Cris Judd, her romance with Affleck heated up. He proposed in November of that year with a 6-carat pink diamond engagement ring.
The pair were supposed to get married in September 2003 in Santa Barbara, California, but keeping the wedding private was a massive challenge. Us reported at the time that about 400 guests were invited by phone and informed that final details would be hand-delivered four days before the ceremony.
Just days before they were set to say “I do” in September 2003, Affleck and Lopez called off the wedding.
“Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date,” Lopez and Affleck said in a joint statement at the time. “When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realized that something was awry.”
They stayed together for a few months before announcing their split in early 2004.
The Justice League star went on to marry Jennifer Garner in June 2005. They welcomed daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 13, and son Samuel, 10, before announcing their separation in June 2015.
The Hustlers actress, for her part, was married to Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2014. They share twins Max and Emme, both 14.
After Lopez and Alex Rodriguez ended their engagement in April 2021, the “Jenny From the Block” singer reconnected with Affleck. He proposed a year later, she announced in her “On the JLo” newsletter.
“I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again, I was quite literally speechless,” the “Waiting for Tonight” songstress wrote in April alongside photos of her 8-carat green diamond ring.
The Halftime star continued, recalling, “I was smiling so big and tears were coming down my face, feeling so incredibly happy and whole. It was nothing fancy at all, but it was the most romantic thing I could’ve ever imagined…just a quiet Saturday night at home, two people promising to always be there for each other. Two very lucky people. Who got a second chance at true love.”
With reporting by Travis Cronin
