According to tradition, on the second wedding anniversary, you should give your spouse something cotton — you could even make a fun gift, like a one-of-a-kind T-shirt emblazoned with something meaningful about your relationship. However, on their second anniversary as husband and wife, Jennifer Lopez reverted to paper, the traditional gift for the first anniversary, and served her husband Ben Affleck divorce papers. So, how is that going?
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, aka Bennifer, dated and got engaged in the early 2000s, but they couldn’t make it work. After becoming one of Hollywood’s most glamorous couple, starring in a couple of films together and shining bright on every red carpet holding hands, the media pressure led to them postponing and, eventually, calling off their wedding. Several relationships, marriages, and kids later, Bennifer reunited and seemed stronger than ever.
This time, they made it down the aisle — twice! The first time, they couldn’t wait to become husband and wife and took their kids to a chapel in Vegas and got hitched like any other madly-in-love couple. A month later, on Aug. 20, they said “I do” in front of their family and friends in a lavish wedding at his estate in Georgia.
Bennifer’s divorce could get ugly, and it could’ve easily been avoided
Divorce is difficult but, let’s face it, both Affleck and Lopez have been through it before, so at least there shouldn’t be any novelty. The two are big names in their respective fields, which comes with a lot of responsibility to protect their assets, but the couple, in their rush to elope, overlooked the most important detail: a prenup.
Per Celebrity Net Worth, triple-threat Jennifer Lopez, who is a singer, actress, and dancer, has a net worth of $400 million. Her Academy Award-winning husband, director, screenwriter, and producer Ben Affleck is “only” worth $150 million.
Love might not cost a thing, but an insider told PEOPLE that Bennifer’s divorce “has the potential to get ugly.” The reason? Money, of course, the thing that makes the world go round. The couple is currently in mediation with high-powered celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser (who represented Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, and Kevin Costner), but “there are some sticking points over financials.”
When Lopez filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary, the singer noted their assets were “unknown” at the time of filing. Based on California state law, the two should only divide the assets they acquired during their two-year marriage. During their marriage, the two bought a $60.8 million mega-mansion in Los Angeles, California, which they put up for sale this summer for $68 million after major renovations. Both had separate projects, including Affleck’s Dunkin’ commercials and films, as well as Lopez’s Prime Video documentaries and her Netflix hits The Mother and Atlas.
As divorce seemed imminent in the last few months, fighting over something as trivial as money, especially when they have so much of it, couldn’t be more uncouth, especially since they couldn’t fight for their marriage to last.