On the same day that Jennifer Lopez officially filed for divorce from her husband of two years, Ben Affleck, the actor was reportedly spotted sans his wedding band.
On Tuesday, Aug. 20, Lopez filed paperwork to end the couple's marriage, and on the two-year anniversary of their marriage celebration in Georgia.
That same day, according to People, the actor was spotted in the parking lot of a building in Los Angeles wearing "a gray T-shirt, jeans and black-tinted sunglasses," but no wedding ring on his left hand.
According to the same publication, Affleck has been "spotted on several other occasions at the same office building in recent weeks," and after spending the summer away from his estranged wife, who enjoyed shopping trips with her children, a solo-vacation in Italy, and a Bridgerton-themed birthday party in the Hamptons.
Rumors the pair were headed for a divorce has been swirling for months and especially after Affleck moved out of their marital home and the pair put the multi-million dollar LA estate on the market.
Insiders claimed that Affleck hadn't "shown interest" in making the relationship work, while others alleged that the actor continued to have issues with Lopez's level of fame.
For the uninitiated, excessive media attention was the reason the pair cited for the end of their 2004 engagement. At one point, Affleck even said when the two reconnected that he didn't want "a relationship on social media."
In fact, some believe that Lopez deciding to document their rekindled love via her documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told was an issue that eventually led to the demise of their marriage.
One particular moment in the film, as reported by the Daily Mail, showed an interaction between Lopez and Affleck after Lopez revealed that she had purposefully shown a personal gift Affleck had given her to songwriters.
"My book that I had given her was down there. She's like 'I've been reading it to people," Affleck said at the time, visibly upset. "This is kind of the inspiration and I've been showing them the book.' I was like, 'You've been showing all the musicians all those letters?' And they were like, 'Yeah, we call you Pen Affleck.' And I was like, 'Oh my god.'"
Other reports claim that Lopez was simply "tired of being humiliated" by Affleck.
"Jennifer said she was tired of being humiliated by Ben and she waited until the two year anniversary because she wanted to sting," a source recently told The Daily Mail. "But it did not sting him. He's been done for a long time and deep down she knows this. He let her have this so that she wouldn't look like the villain.
"After four failed marriages, her friends feel that she should take a look inside and focus on herself instead of what others want her to be and finally figure out who she is and what she wants from her future," the insider added.
TMZ was first to break the news of the pair's split, reporting that Lopez filed for divorce by herself without a lawyer in L.A. County Superior Court. The publication also revealed that J.Lo listed their separation date as April 26, 2024.
