Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck didn’t shy away from discussing their 2003 breakup in Jennifer’s new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The doc, which premieres on February 27 on Prime Video, features a conversation between the couple where Ben, 51, asks Jennifer, 54, if she’s been able to “forgive” him for their split that happened over two decades ago.
“I think I was angry at you for a long time,” Jennifer tells her husband, per PEOPLE. “But that heartbreak set both of us on a course to figuring ourselves out to being better people. I think I’ve forgiven you all the way. I think I need to forgive myself [for] some things.”
Jennifer and Ben called off their wedding days before they were set to be married in September 2003. They officially broke up in January 2004 and went on to marry and have kids with other partners. The pair eventually reconnected in 2021 and got married the following year.
In the doc, Jennifer tells a group of people that the Gigli co-stars canceled their 2003 wedding because they “just crumbled under the pressure,” according to ET. The “Let’s Get Loud” hitmaker also says, “For all those years it was really hard, because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life, I felt like I lost the best friend that I ever had. And I couldn’t talk for so many years, and that was the hardest part.”
Ben also opens up about dealing with separating from Jennifer back in the day in the doc. “When Jen and I broke up before, the catalyst for that was the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life,” says the Justice League actor, who got back with the singer years after his split from Jennifer Garner.
Director Dave Meyers adds that the breakup with Ben was “catastrophic” to Jennifer’s “constitution” at the time. “Everything that she wanted from what she understood love to be. For that to not work, for the pressures to break it apart, it just spun her out,” he explains.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in 2002 (Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage)
The Greatest Love Story showcases the creation of Jennifer’s new album This Is Me…Now and her Prime Video musical film This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, which both came out on February 16. Jennifer has been discussing her relationship with Ben and their original breakup in interviews to promote her new projects. While speaking to Variety, Jennifer revealed what led to their public downfall in 2003. “Our relationship crumbled under the weight of the pressure,” she said. “We lost a sense of ourselves, and we needed to separate because we didn’t know how to survive it. I had to figure myself out, and he had to figure himself out.”
