It’s been two decades since Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck first fell madly in love with each other on the set of their film, Gigli, back in 2002.
And, after confirming they had reunited last July, J-Lo, 52, revealed Ben, 49, had proposed for the second time last month, when she flashed a huge green diamond ring on her Instagram page – describing the ring, and presumably her new fiancé, as “perfect”.
But while J-Lo – who ended her two-year engagement to Alex Rodriguez in April last year – is thought to be powering ahead with ideas for what a US source has described as an intimate but “elaborate” wedding in LA, an insider tells Closer how the bride-to-be has started to become “stressed-out” by Ben’s reluctance to start planning.
“They are still very much together and planning their long-term future, but Ben is dragging his heels when it comes to organising the wedding and it’s stressing Jen out,” reveals the source.
“It seems Ben is happy to wait until next year to get married. He and his team have told people it’s going to be a fairly long engagement and they’re happy just doing their thing without any stress. But that’s not really what Jen wants. After what happened last time, she can’t help worrying about the wedding being called off at the last minute.”
Both Jen and Ben have admitted that the intense media scrutiny around their romance contributed to their original relationship breaking down very quickly.
Just a day before the couple’s planned September 2003 wedding, they released a joint statement explaining they were postponing the event because of “excessive media attention”. And just three months later, they announced their split.
The following year, Jen went on to marry Marc Anthony, 53, and the couple welcomed twins Max and Emme, now 14, in 2008, before divorcing in 2011. But in 2014, she released her memoir, True Love, and described her split from Ben
as “my first real heartbreak”.
She wrote, “Ben and I split up at the moment when I thought we were committing to each other forever. It was my first real heartbreak. It felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest. Marc came back into my life three days after I should have been at the altar saying, ‘I do’ to another man.”
Meanwhile, Ben went on to marry his Pearl Harbour co-star, Jennifer Garner, 50, in 2005, later welcoming three children – Violet, now 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10. But the couple announced they would be divorcing days after their wedding anniversary in 2015, and he was later alleged to be romancing his children’s nanny.
Despite their divorce, both Ben and Jennifer have remained on good terms, and in 2018 she moved on with her long-term boyfriend, businessman John Miller. The couple were rumoured to be engaged in November when the actress was spotted with a diamond ring on her engagement finger during an Instagram Live video.
J-Lo has remained amicable with ex Marc too. He moved on with Miss Universe runner-up, Nadia Ferreira, 23, and the couple announced their engagement on Instagram last week.
But while both Ben and J-Lo have spoken openly about their close relationships with their ex-partners, the source says the singer can’t help but feel that with the engagements so close together, it’s turned into a race down the aisle.
The insider says, “Jen has set her heart on marrying Ben and doesn’t want anyone to steal her thunder. Ben
is reminding her that they have the rest of their lives together and that there’s no great rush, but she wants him to be on the same page.
“She made it very clear to him when they got serious that she needed him to be committed. And Ben was totally on board – he just wants to make her happy. There’s still a white-hot energy between them that leaves her in no doubt he’s still wild for her.”
But with her previous broken engagement to Ben still playing on her mind, the insider says Jennifer will do anything she can to have her happy-ever-after this time around.
The source adds, “After her past heartache, Jen knows engagements can get postponed to a point where the wedding never happens. She wants their big day to go ahead soon, so she’s telling Ben that his laid-back approach isn’t working for her.”