Jennifer Lopez has spoken for the first time about how she is doing following the end of her marriage to Ben Affleck.
The singer and actress, 55, described how her life “blew up” in her face this year and reflected on the lessons she still has to learn after filing for divorce on August 20, which was her and Affleck’s second wedding anniversary.
Appearing on the front cover of Interview magazine to mark the publication’s 55th anniversary, Lopez did not name Affleck directly, but said she now needed to learn to be on her own.
She said: “You have to be healthy. You have to be complete, if you want something that’s more complete. You have to be good on your own. I thought I learned that, but I didn’t. And then, this summer, I had to be like, “I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that.
“It feels lonely, unfamiliar, scary. It feels sad. It feels desperate,” the Can’t Get Enough hit-maker continued. “But when you sit in those feelings and go, ‘These things are not going to kill me,’ it’s like actually, I am capable of joy and happiness all by myself. Being in a relationship doesn’t define me. I can’t be looking for happiness in other people. I have to have happiness within myself. I used to say I’m a happy person, but was still looking for something for somebody else to fill, and it’s just like, ‘No, I’m actually good’.
“I understand that now in a much deeper way, which doesn’t mean that I won’t make mistakes in the future, but again, when your whole house blows up, you’re standing there in the rubble going, ‘How do I not ever let that happen again?’”
While Lopez admitted the split was “f***ing hard,” she is adamant that she has “not one second” of regrets about how things played out and she is not currently looking to date anyone else.
Lopez and Affleck initially dated in the early 2000s after meeting on the set of their first movie together, Gigli, which was released in 2003. They teamed up again in 2004 for the flick Jersey Girl. Bennifer, as they were often called, came to an end not long after they called off their wedding in 2003. The relationship was rekindled in 2021 before marrying in Las Vegas in 2022.
In-between that time, Affleck went on to marry actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children – Violet Anne, 18, Fin, 14, and Samuel, 12.
Lopez meanwhile has 16-year-old twins Emme and Max with ex Marc Anthony.
