Ben Affleck Recalls Ex Jennifer Lopez Facing Racism & Sexism During Engagement

Here’s an interesting reminiscence from Ben Affleck!

The multi-hyphenate actor appeared on an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, where he discussed the ups and downs of his long career — which surprisingly included his engagement to Jennifer Lopez.

He said:

“There’s always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially … they needed something to write about and we were that thing. Still, to this day, [some] will go, ‘I see you out there in the paparazzi and the pictures!’ It’s like, ‘Yes, I left my house and took out the trash. It’s not like I’m trying to—’ And it’s still like, ‘You were taking a pap walk!’ As if, if you leave your house, you’re only doing so in the hope that you could be so lucky that you could end up as the sixth item in The Daily Mail. It’s absurd.”

Considering that pap shots of the 48-year-old became some of the first memes of 2021 — and it’s not even the first time it’s happened to the celebrated director — you can definitely consider him an expert on the subject.

That wasn’t all he had to say about his ex-fianceé, however. He continued:

“People were so f**king mean about her — sexist, racist, ugly, vicious s**t 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 f**king 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.”

Uhhh… interesting thought, although we’re not sure you can compare two extremely accomplished women who have been enormously successful in two very different and very difficult, competitive fields. It’s certainly a nice compliment to his ex, though!

Speaking of the downward turn in his career after a string of flops (including Gigli alongside J.Lo), he recalled:

“I was actually in the very worst position you can be in in this business, which is you can sell magazines but not movie tickets. … I sort of had to make it in the business twice, because I became so cold and so not cool and so out of it that I had to totally reinvent my career. And it was harder [the second time] because before I was just starting at the start line, but now I had to start a mile further back because people didn’t have no perception of me, but [instead had] a negative one fostered by a really reckless and irresponsible tabloid press that would just write things that weren’t true.”

As we all know, the Bostonian managed to make a comeback — and then fall out of grace again, only to make another comeback. Luckily, he’s now coming off of one of the most critically acclaimed roles of his career (The Way Back), happily involved with Ms. Ana de Armas, and feeling “really good” after getting sober.

It’s great to hear the Good Will Hunting star speak so candidly, but even better to see him thriving!

[Image via WENN/Avalon/Instar]