Ben Affleck once said there’s not ‘enough followers’ to fulfill J.Lo’s sense of ‘longing’ and ‘pain’

Ben Affleck once discussed the “pain” Jennifer Lopez still carried around from her childhood, revealing that no amount of fame or followers could fulfill the sense of “longing” she felt.

Affleck, 52, made the comments in the Prime Video documentary for Lopez’s project, “Greatest Love Story Never Told,” released on February 27, less than six months before the 55-year-old singer filed to officially end their two-year marriage.

“Jen felt emotionally neglected as a child,” Affleck said in a segment of the documentary. “We are kind of learning more and more that it doesn’t have to be the kind of trauma where you’re locked in a basement for a year to leave wounds on you. In fact, they’re deceptive when they’re harder to pin down.”

He continued, “It’s a hard thing to look at somebody whose professional life is wildly successful and who, on Instagram, looks like they’re living the happiest life in the world.”

Affleck compared Lopez’s need for acceptance to his struggles with alcohol.

“The thing you discover like you do with alcohol is that there isn’t enough alcohol in all liquor stores in the world to fill up that thing. And in Jennifer’s case. I don’t think there’s enough followers, or movies or any of that stuff to still that part of you that still feels a longing and a pain. Ultimately, that’s the work that you’ve got to do on your own,” he shared.

Lopez also spoke openly about her childhood in the documentary.

“When I was growing up, I was always looking for somebody to make me feel loved. I was a middle child. Not the baby. Not the firstborn. You just kind of get lost a little bit in between it all. That just left me on this train to show everybody that I had worth and value too,” she explained.

Lopez said she began “winning medals,” hoping to get noticed like her sisters. She claimed it gave her a sense of work ethic, which is why she succeeded in Hollywood.

“I learned to work really hard and be very disciplined, like an athlete,” she recalled. “So I just stuck with that. I just stuck with the working hard part because I was the best at that.”

“Greatest Love Story Never Told” was a self-financed $20 million three-part multimedia project about her habit as a serial romantic, giving viewers insight into her second chance at romance with Affleck.

Bennifer’s love story began in 2002 after they starred in “Gigli.” They had plans to marry in September 2003 but called off the wedding days before they were supposed to walk down the aisle. Affleck and Lopez eventually announced their breakup in January 2004.

The “Let’s Get Loud” singer revealed she felt like she “was going to die” after their split. They got back together in 2021, and by the following year, they were married.

Lopez filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, August 20 — the anniversary of their second wedding ceremony.

A source told Daily Mail that she picked the monumental day to file because she wanted it to “sting.”

She listed the date of separation as April 26, 2024, confirming they haven’t been together amid the breakup rumors that started swirling in May.

That’s when it was revealed that Affleck and Lopez had been living separately. He moved out of their $60 million marital mansion and into a rental home. They have since put the dream home they had bought together on the market, and the “Argo” actor purchased a $20.5 million bachelor pad.

Lopez and Affleck reportedly did not sign a prenuptial agreement — which could be the costliest mistake of their lives. If there’s no prenup, all of their earnings, profits, and assets they made during their union are considered community property — and they’ve been busy since becoming newlyweds.

This marks Lopez’s fourth divorce and Affleck’s second.

Lopez was married to actor Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998 before saying, “I do” to backup dancer Cris Judd in 2002. They divorced the following year. Lopez’s third marriage was to singer Marc Anthony, with whom she shares 16-year-old twins, Emme and Max. They were married from 2004 to 2014.

Affleck married Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018. He was with her just hours before the news of the J.Lo divorce broke. The actor and Garner share three children: Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12.