Ben Affleck opened up about his divorce from Jennifer Lopez for the first time.
In a new GQ cover story, Affleck, 52, discussed his short-lived marriage with Lopez, 55.
"Part of it was, 'Okay, if I’m going to participate in this, I want to try to do it in an honest way and in a way that’s interesting.' Because I thought it was an interesting examination," Affleck said about his participation in the 2024 Prime Video documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told. In the piece, Affleck told GQ that it was "important" for him to clarify that the documentary "wasn’t the cause of some major fracture" in his relationship with Lopez, despite outside speculation.
Affleck added that he believes there are entertainers who have "handled celebrity more adeptly and more adroitly than I have," including Lopez.
"My temperament is to be a little bit more reserved and private than hers. As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things," he shared.
"And so I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that? Because exactly what you said is true. I love and support this person," Affleck explained. "I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that."
Affleck added that the documentary was not a good way to gain insight into what went wrong in their relationship.
"It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, 'Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had,'" he continued.
Affleck later wanted to make it "clear" that the actress-singer is someone he has "a lot of respect for." "And I get wanting to divine or explore the kind of differences in perspective that we have in terms of how a person feels comfortable approaching the line between public and private life," he explained. "But I really hope that whatever you use doesn’t suggest that I have any negativity or judgment or anything regarding that. I have nothing but respect."
While Lopez has been married four times, sharing 17-year-old twins with her third husband, Marc Anthony, Affleck was previously married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018. The exes share three children: Violet, 19, Seraphina Rose, 16 and Samuel, 13.