When a celebrity couple calls it quits, as Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have done following two years of highly publicized marriage, everyone asks how it ended. A good follow-up question is usually: Why are we hearing about it now?

Lopez’s divorce filing, according to People, lists their date of separation as April 26, 2024—nearly four months ago. But it seems like the day that news of the split broke to the rest of the world was no accident. “She was done waiting, and the date she did it speaks a ton,” a Lopez source told the publication, noting that Tuesday, August 20 marked the second anniversary of her and Affleck’s wedding ceremony in Georgia.

On the top of the emotional gut punch, the split was announced amid the 2024 Democratic National Convention, on the day that Barack and Michelle Obama were poised to deliver a pair of headline-making political speeches in support of Kamala Harris. “Under cover of the DNC, Jennifer Lopez files for divorce from Ben Affleck,” AV Club headlined its reporting of the split.

A celebrity divorce of this magnitude can’t fly totally under the radar, particularly one that has been rumored to be happening for as long—and as consistently—as this one. (Even celeb news account Pop Crave managed to report live from the DNC and still generate content about the Bennifer divorce.) But a well-timed info drop can minimize potential coverage or distract further digging into the terms surrounding a major split. “Divorces, breakups—these are things that we’re in control of,” celebrity publicist Jonathan Hay told Marie Claire back in 2016. “It’s not like a death or something—you’re in control of when the announcement comes out. You can pick.”

There are those who manage to be quietly separated for long stretches before the news becomes public: See Sarah and Todd Palin, whose 2019 divorce filing went unpublicized for months, or Meryl Streep and Don Gummer, who managed to keep tight-lipped about their separation for six years. Then there are those who appear to consciously uncouple on a day they think it’s less likely to be the subject of a media pig pile.

This on-the-down-low style of divorce announcement usually goes down late on a Friday afternoon, when something may get covered but not be as closely inspected as a mid-week announcement might—bonus points if the news breaks just before a bustling, often understaffed holiday weekend. (For what it’s worth, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s “conscious uncoupling,” which was published on a Tuesday via Goop, felt coordinated for maximal press coverage.)

Look at any extended holiday weekend on the calendar, and a celebrity divorce has likely been publicized on the Friday before it. In 2011, Katy Perry and Russell Brand’s split was announced a day before New Year’s Eve. Six years earlier, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were photographed walking the beach on New Year’s Day, then tried to squeak under the radar on the first business Friday of 2005 with their divorce. Easter weekend has been an ideal dumping ground for celebrity couples like Adele and Simon Konecki, as well as Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Memorial Day weekend brought news of separation for Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, who have since reconciled, while news of Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s split emerged just before Labor Day. And Halloween weekend came hot on the heels of divorce announcements from Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, not to mention Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.

This timing doesn’t always benefit those involved. When Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s divorce broke just before Thanksgiving Day in 2005, the event did little to overshadow the news that reality TV’s favorite Newlyweds were parting ways. One particularly active message board labeled their split “a true holiday tragedy.” Months of tabloid speculation about the reasons for their breakup followed, exacerbated by the release of Lachey’s breakup ballad, “What’s Left of Me.”

Like Lopez and Affleck, there is also a grand tradition of celebrities announcing their divorces during major political moments. This dates at least as far back as 1961, when Marilyn Monroe reportedly filed for divorce from Arthur Miller on the day of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. News that Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber had split hit hours before the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton back in 2016. The divorce of Real Housewives star Erika Jayne and her disgraced attorney husband, Tom Girardi, landed in the news on Election Day 2020. Ten days later, Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde’s breakup became public knowledge. And the Page Six exclusive on Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s split was published in the midst of Georgia’s Senate runoff races in 2021.

Amid their irreconcilable differences, the only thing two incompatible A-listers can agree on sometimes is a bit of strategic scheduling. “When you have a dual celebrity couple, each side understands the need to keep things quiet and private so they’re not destroying each other’s brand in the process,” California family law attorney Christopher Melcher told Business Insider last year.

As for the next celebrity split? Labor Day is around the corner, so we may not have to wait long.