Jennifer Lopez Recalls Canceling 2003 Ben Affleck Wedding: 'It Didn't Feel Like We Were Going to Make It'

Jennifer Lopez is opening up about a challenging time with now-husband Ben Affleck.

In a Wednesday interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the Hustlers actress, 54, recalls how she and the Air star, 51, called off their first wedding in September 2003, nearly two decades before they finally tied the knot.

“We didn't break up right at that moment, it happened over the series of the next few months,” explained Lopez, who eventually split from Affleck in January 2004. “Because what it did was it casted doubt in me, and both of us, about what our relationship was and where it was going, I think.”

“I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life, I knew that. But it didn't feel like we were going to make it,” continued Lopez, whose new film This Is Me...Now: A Love Story premieres Friday on Prime Video. “And so, it scared me.”

Lopez, who met Affleck in 2002 while making the movie Gigli, said they weren’t “mature enough” to figure out their relationship.

“Even though he was in his late 20s, I was in my early 30s, it still, it wasn't ... we weren't ready to deal with, and look at each other and go, what we have is real, we need to buckle down, we need to do some work,” she explained. “We just weren't there yet.”

After their breakup, Lopez married singer Marc Anthony, with whom she shares 15-year-old twins Max and Emme. She and Anthony split in 2011 after seven years of marriage.

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The Argo director went on to wed Jennifer Garner in 2005. The couple welcomed Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 11, before breaking up in 2015.

“We went, and we both tried, and found other people, and had beautiful children, and had other families, and then even had other relationships after that,” Lopez said in her interview with Lowe. 

“It wasn't until both of us had done, I know for me, a lot of work, and got into a place where I was like, 'You know what? I'm totally good on my own. I'm chill, I love my life, I have this amazing career that I've built for myself, I have these amazing children ... I have great friends.' That's when he showed back up,” she said.

She and Affleck reunited as a couple in 2021 and wed in a surprise Las Vegas ceremony the following year.

At Tuesday night’s Los Angeles premiere of This Is Me…Now, Lopez got emotional while acknowledging Affleck ahead of the screening.

“There is the person who inspired this for me, who has inspired me my whole life. He just, he inspired an album 20 years ago and I know he hates that I'm doing this right now," she said, referring to Affleck and her 2002 album This Is Me…Then.

"He's just like, 'Please shut up.’ No! And I say no. I say, I love you and thank you for believing in me and helping me believe in myself," she said. "And helping me to grow every single day. Thank you for the family that we've created and our children and everything that you do for me."

This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is on Prime Video Friday.