Jennifer Lopez requests a name change amid Ben Affleck divorce

Jennifer Lopez is dropping the name Affleck.

The entertainer, who legally changed her name to Jennifer Lynn Affleck after marrying Ben Affleck in July 2022, requested to change her surname back to Lopez when she filed for divorce from the actor on Aug. 20, according to documents obtained by TODAY.com.

The "Jenny from the Block" singer also specified in her divorce petition, which she filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, that the court deny her and her ex the ability to collect spousal support.

Lopez's request to change her legal name back to her own comes less than two years after she defended herself against critics who said she should have never taken Affleck's name in the first place.

Speaking to Vogue in November 2022, Lopez responded to a New York Times op-ed by Jennifer Weiner that compared a woman taking her husband's surname to a "submission," arguing that the gesture "doesn’t say 'I belong with him' so much as 'I belong to him.'"

The essay argued that at this "fraught moment for feminism in America," Lopez "deciding to change her name feels especially dispiriting."

Lopez responded by saying she was "proud" to use Affleck's name as her own.

“People are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez. But my legal name will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together. We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem," she told Vogue.

The singer and actor added, however, that she wouldn't want Affleck to use her last name.

“It’s not traditional. It doesn’t have any romance to it. It feels like it’s a power move, you know what I mean? I’m very much in control of my own life and destiny and feel empowered as a woman and as a person,” she explained.

“I can understand that people have their feelings about it, and that’s OK, too,” added Lopez. “But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic. It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl.”

Lopez and Affleck made headlines in 2021 when they rekindled their romance from the early 2000s. The pair's love story was revived after Lopez and former pro baseball player Alex Rodriguez called off their engagement in April 2021.

Lopez and Affleck originally got engaged in 2002 after dating for a short time, but parted ways in 2004. She called their breakup the “biggest heartbreak” of her life in a November 2022 interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.

The following year, Affleck married actor Jennifer Garner. He and Garner welcomed three children before splitting in 2015, and officially divorcing in 2018.

Lopez married singer Marc Anthony in 2004. The pair welcomed twins in 2008 before divorcing in 2014. Lopez was also previously married to actor Ojani Noa and dancer Cris Judd.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com