Awkward Jennifer Lopez And Ben Affleck Moments Caught On Camera

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were one of the first Tinseltown couples to receive the portmanteau treatment. Their initial union in 2002 coined the term "Bennifer." But like Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), Kimye (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West), and TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), the linguistic blend appeared to jinx things, and by 2004, the A-listers had gone their separate ways.

But in the kind of twist usually reserved for Hollywood fairytales, Affleck and Lopez reunited in 2021 and, a year later, walked down the aisle for marriages number two and four, respectively. Sadly, the happy ending still seems to be elusive for the on-off pair. In 2024, gossip began circulating that a divorce was on the cards. According to an insider from Page Six, the "Argo" director would apparently end their second-time romance "on grounds of temporary insanity" if he could.

Lopez and Affleck haven't exactly helped to quash such speculation, either. In fact, pretty much every time they have stepped out in public since reconnecting, they've struggled to put on a united front. From red carpet disputes to traffic stop feuds, here's a look at 13 times the pair were caught on camera looking anything but loved-up.

Jennifer Lopez was certainly determined to show off the fact that she was in a relationship with Ben Affleck when she released her 2002 album, "This Is Me... Then." Not only did she name one of its tracks, "Dear Ben," but she also roped in her actor boyfriend to appear in the video for its lead single, "Jenny from the Block." Unfortunately, the public displays of affection that appeared in the latter didn't go down well with the public. Or Affleck himself, for that matter.

Yes, in a 2008 interview with The Daily Record, the Academy Award winner admitted he was now uncomfortable with all the smooching, cuddling, and general body contact that went down in the slightly cringeworthy promo. "If I have a regret, it was doing the ["Jenny from the Block"] music video. But that happened years ago. I've moved on."

Affleck, who was shown rubbing suntan lotion on Lopez's derriere in the offending promo, acknowledges that attitudes toward him began to negatively shift in the wake of its premiere. But he refuted any talk that Lopez herself was responsible for his fall down the Hollywood ladder. "It not only makes me look like a petulant fool, but it surely qualifies as ungentlemanly? For the record, did she hurt my career? No."

Just a few months after their first engagement, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attended the 75th Academy Awards together. Not that either party was nominated for anything. The likes of "The Third Wheel," "Changing Lanes," and "Maid in Manhattan" were never going to impress the Academy voters. And yet, the pair still ended up making the headlines due to a rather unfortunately timed red carpet photo.

In the offending pic, Affleck and Lopez can be seen locking lips in just one of their countless displays of public affection. But while the latter seems fully committed to the smooch, the former's attention appears to be completely elsewhere. Indeed, the actor, who five years previously did win a coveted golden statuette for "Good Will Hunting," can be seen glancing over the top of his beau's head.

It's not known exactly what threw Affleck off his game. But remarkably, he did the same again when the couple attended the premiere of "Gigli," the rom-com flop which did enjoy awards attention the following year, albeit at the Razzies instead of the Academy Awards.

"Now we can see why the Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck marriage was called off. It was on grounds of unreasonable cruelty to audiences," reported the Daily Mail. "After the schadenfreudian thrill of watching beautiful people humiliate themselves wears off, it has the same annihilating effect on your will to live," noted Newsweek. "More stupefying follies may come, but it's impossible to imagine how they'll beat this one for staggering idiocy, fatuousness, or pretension," claimed the Wall Street Journal. And these were some of the more positive reviews of "Gigli," the 2003 action romance which very nearly sank the careers of its two leads.

Much of the ire was directed toward one particular moment, the scene where Lopez's lesbian gangster commands Affleck's mobster to show off his oral skills with the phrase, "It's turkey time! Gobble, gobble, gobble." These six words instantly guaranteed the film a place in Hollywood's Hall of Shame, and for many, remains the most embarrassing exchange in the power couple's history.

Affleck and Lopez split five months after the box office turkey's release. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, the former recalled how he felt at the time, "The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm. And I remember talking to Marty [director Martin Brest] the Friday it came out and I was like it's just spectacular, it's a tsunami, it couldn't be worse. This is as bad as it gets."

The so-called honeymoon period didn't appear to last long for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. Just days after getting hitched at the latter's plantation estate in Georgia in the summer of 2022, the newlyweds were spotted on their actual honeymoon engaging in a conversation that looked anything but relaxed.

In the footage, which made its way into the Daily Mail, the A-listers can be seen having dinner side by side at the swanky Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Italy's Lake Como. And at times, they look every inch the happy couple as they peruse through photos of their recent nuptials and repeatedly lock lips with each other.

But there were also moments that indicated that there was already trouble in paradise. Affleck, in particular, displayed some incredibly animated body language and facial expressions to get certain points across. And although Lopez listened to his every word, her seat shifting suggested that she might not have been entirely comfortable with what he had to say. "He can't even act well enough to pretend to be happy," noted one member of the public in the article's comments section.

Social media once again claimed that Ben Affleck was the pure definition of miserable when he turned up to the 2023 Grammy Awards with Jennifer Lopez. Indeed, the "Armageddon" star spawned another wave of memes thanks to his dejected demeanor at the music ceremony and the tension that arose during a bit with host Trevor Noah.

Yes, Affleck and Lopez looked at loggerheads with each other when the South African joined them at their table for a quick chat. But according to the Oscar winner, this wasn't a sign of trouble in paradise. In fact, it was just a normal marital conversation between the pair. Affleck explained to The Hollywood Reporter a month later, "I saw [Noah approach] and I was like, 'Oh, God.' They were framing us in this shot, but I didn't know they were rolling. I leaned into her and I was like, 'As soon as they start rolling, I'm going to slide away from you and leave you sitting next to Trevor.' She goes, 'You better f***ing not leave.' That's a husband-and-wife thing."

And Affleck insisted that despite their appearance to the contrary, he enjoyed himself at the star-studded event: "My wife was going, and I thought, 'Well, there'll be good music. It might be fun.' At movie award shows, it's speeches and, like, sound-mixing webinars."

Following Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's visible frostiness toward each other at the Grammy Awards, social media users did their thing and unearthed other examples of the pair in similarly passive-aggressive mode. And this included the time they attended the premiere of the former's most recent romantic comedy.

@celebritea.io

#BenAffleck & #JenniferLopez at the #ShotgunWedding party! #ShotgunWeddingMovie #MoviePremiere #Hollywood #JLo #JoshDuhamel #BTS

♬ original sound – CelebriTea

The couple were initially all smiles when they hit the red carpet to promote "Shotgun Wedding," the 2022 Amazon Original in which Lopez and Josh Duhamel star as impending newlyweds whose nuptials are rudely interrupted by a gang of dangerous pirates. But in footage taken at the afterparty, they once again appear to be at loggerheads in the most public of circumstances.

In the offending clip, which lasts little more than seven seconds, a frowning Affleck can be seen trying to get his point across while a seemingly uninterested Lopez takes a gulp of her cocktail drink. "You can legit feel them exhausting one another," remarked one TikTok user about the interaction. However, Bennifer also had their defenders, with another commenting, "Seriously, people listen to one podcast about body language and think they've got a full degree and 30 years in experience."

Never let it be said that Ben Affleck isn't chivalrous. Even when he appears to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, the "Pearl Harbor" star still finds the time to open the passenger door for his wife whenever they head out on a car journey and close it for her, too. Or, in the case of a clip that went viral in May 2023, aggressively slam it.

The footage in question also shows an apparently stressed Affleck then heading over to his driver's seat before briefly gesticulating to the passer-by who took it. As with everything involving the power couple, every man and his dog had their say about this tense-looking moment, with many suspecting that this was a sign of trouble in the marriage. "It's the way he slammed the door for me ... Bro is not having it anymore!" noted one TikTok user (via The Independent).

But others leaped to Affleck and Lopez's defense, including the commenter who tweeted, "He just wants some privacy and to be treated like a normal human being. Why can't people just say hello and have a good day without putting a camera and microphone on their face?"

In the same month that Ben Affleck was filmed slamming the car door on the passenger side where his wife Jennifer Lopez was sitting, the A-list couple was spotted having another fight while on the road. This time it was at a Beverly Hills traffic light, and the tension appeared to come to a head.

A tourist from Europe struck tabloid gold when he happened to pull up across the "Jersey Girl" stars in the full throes of an argument in Affleck's electric SUV. The fact that the pair had rolled the windows down also made it even clearer that all was not well in the Bennifer household.

"There were a lot of hand gestures," the passer-by who shot the footage told the Daily Mail. "Ben was waving his hands up and down and it looked heated. J.Lo looked a little bit sad. They were so deep in conversation that they didn't even look to the side once. They only looked at each other and the traffic light. It clearly looks heated on his end, a discussion or argument. There were no other cars or people on the street." Of course, this wouldn't be the last time that the two celebrities would experience a spot of public road rage, either.

In 2023's "The Mother," Jennifer Lopez takes center stage as an ex-American military operative who must come out of retirement to help save her kidnapped teenage daughter. A tough mission, for sure. But an even bigger one appeared to be "Don't fall out with the husband at its red-carpet premiere."

Yes, once again, Lopez and Ben Affleck looked like they'd rather be anywhere else than side by side when they attended the event at the Westwood Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles. The former certainly would have benefited from turning her frown upside down, while the latter seemed to be angry at the way he was being gesticulated at by the star of the show.

Lopez and Affleck soon tried to convince the cameras that all was well, flashing their smiles and locking their lips. But these hasty public displays of affection didn't convince social media, with one commenter tweeting (via BuzzFeed), "She's stressing him out lol," and another posting, "He's already sick and tired of her." A lip reader (via Metro), however, came to the A-list couple's defense, claiming that they were simply discussing their outfits and where to stand in front of the cameras.

Anyone who's had to accompany their other half trying on countless items for size can no doubt relate to Ben Affleck's irritation during a bit of New Year retail therapy with wife Jennifer Lopez. The A-list couple had decided to ring in 2024 with some high-end boutique shopping in St. Barts, a popular vacation destination with the celebrity crowd. But Affleck appeared to be at the end of his tether when the "Love Don't Cost a Thing" singer began looking at various Bulgari pieces in the island capital of Gustavia.

At one point, the "Gone Baby Gone" director even throws up his hands in frustration, having previously been asked to take numerous photos of Lopez wearing a necklace from the Cinemagia high jewelry collection while she posed in the mirror. Luckily, the pair seemed to patch things up pretty quickly as they were soon pictured embracing, making sure to take selfies at the same time, of course.

Lopez already had a jewelry collection estimated to be worth millions. This includes the Harry Winston 6.1 carat engagement ring Affleck gave her first time around in 2002 and the 8.5 carat upgrade he proposed with two decades later which is said to have cost up to $10 million.

In what proved to be a prolific 2024 for Jennifer Lopez, the multi-talent gave fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her life with the Amazon documentary "The Greatest Love Story Never Told." Its title was inspired by a collection of love letters that Ben Affleck sent her that were intended to be strictly private. Unfortunately for the old romantic, his other half didn't think twice about sharing its contents.

Indeed, in the doc, it's revealed that Lopez allows her musical collaborators to read the letters as inspiration for her album sequel "This Is Me ... Now." But when the man who penned them walks in on the reading session, well, things get awkward. Indeed, Affleck tells the camera (via Variety), "I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it's the greatest love story never told. If you're making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it."

"Things that are private I always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they're private," "The Town" star continued. "So this was something of an adjustment for me." Interestingly, in 2021, Affleck revealed to Howard Stern (via HuffPost) that media intrusion "was about 50%" responsible for ruining his and Lopez's relationship the first time around.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck once again appeared to experience some car trouble in May 2024 when they were filmed mid-argument by a nosey passer-by. The footage in question inspired many lip readers to attempt an interpretation. And although one particular TikToker managed to decipher certain phrases, we're still none the wiser as to what it was all about.

The "Shakespeare in Love" star can apparently be seen saying, "I'm pretty nice to them, I just think that that's ..." before Lopez interjects, "Yeah, but you don't ..." "K. And your friends have movies together," Affleck then replies, before the "If You Had My Love" singer hits back, "No, that's not ..." "Yes, it is," comes the response.

This was the first time that the power couple had been pictured together in two months following rumors that there was trouble in their marriage. But this latest argument said to have occurred during a Santa Monica date night, did little to dispel the gossip.

It takes a brave, and some would say foolish, reporter to question Jennifer Lopez about the state of her marriage to Ben Affleck in such a strictly controlled media landscape. Even more so at such a high-profile event as the Golden Globes. Step forward Variety's Marc Malkin, who did just that on the red carpet in 2024.

Jennifer Lopez: "When they say you know, you know. And other times when you didn't know, you also didn't know." #GoldenGlobes https://t.co/bTYJ1neAOi pic.twitter.com/otSpnenHzG

— Variety (@Variety) January 8, 2024

"Because when they say, 'You know,' you know,'" the "Get Right" singer answered (via the Daily Mail) when asked how she knew whether her fourth trip down the aisle would definitely be her last. "And other times when you didn't know ... you also didn't know. I think you always go in with the best of intentions every single time that you ever leap into anything."

But while Lopez awkwardly laughed off such intrusion the first time around, she was a little feistier when another reporter dared to bring up the same subject during a press conference to promote Netflix's original Atlas. "You know better than that," she replied (via Variety) when explicitly asked whether she was divorcing Affleck. Her co-star Simu Liu also leaped to her defense, responding, "Okay, we're not doing that ... come on, don't come in here with that energy."