Jennifer Lopez has admitted she felt apprehensive about marrying Ben Affleck after their wedding plans 20 years ago “fell apart”.
The couple rekindled their relationship in 2021, two decades after first breaking up. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Lopez has revealed the nerves that came with preparing a wedding for a second time.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but 20 years ago we were supposed to get married and it kind of all fell apart back then,” she told Kimmel, who cheekily responded, “Yes, I heard.”
“And this time I absolutely had a little ‘PTSD’, and so I was just like, ‘Woah, is this happening? Is this really happening?'”
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Lopez and Affleck began dating in 2002 and got engaged that year. They initially postponed their wedding in September 2003, but then split in January 2004.
It’s no surprise, then, that after rekindling their romance the couple were keen to tie the knot.
Affleck seemed to reflect that sentiment, with Lopez sharing his impulsive solution.
“We were so happy, and of course it was happening, but I just felt like the wedding was so stressful,” she told Kimmel.
“And one day Ben just says, ‘F–k it, let’s just go to Vegas and get married tonight.'”
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On the same day as their Vegas wedding, Lopez said she and Affleck had attended a meeting in which wedding planners trying to convince them to marry in Italy, rather than the Savannah family wedding they’d originally wanted.
Affleck knew his fiancee felt stressed, so despite the meeting and the fact Lopez singer had a rehearsal that day, the Argo actor was set on making a Vegas wedding happen.
“I was like, ‘I cannot go, I have rehearsal today for my show’ and he was like, ‘Go to rehearsal, when you get back here I’ll have everything set up.'”
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The couple took two of their children – Lopez’s twin sons Emme and Maximilian, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony – to witness the Vegas wedding.
“It was very funny, because you have to go and get the license first and the whole thing,” Lopez said.
“We were standing at, not the DMV but whatever the county clerk’s office is, and we are just standing there and Ben’s standing there and there is this couple in front of us with a baby, a gay couple behind us.
“We were just, like, in line with them from 10 to midnight. We went at the last, last minute.
“Everybody was kind of chill. Nobody was freaking out or anything, but they were talking to us like, ‘Hey what are you doing here?’ And we were like, ‘We are getting married.'”
The couple later held their family wedding in Georgia with all five kids present.
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