Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are hanging out following her split from Alex Rodriguez. ET has learned that the exes have spent time together recently, but only as friends.
On Friday, Page Six reported that 48-year-old Affleck has been spotted multiple times visiting 51-year-old Lopez since she officially announced her breakup from Rodriguez, getting dropped off at her mansion by a while Escalade SUV that allegedly belongs to Lopez.
The outlet published pictures of Affleck exiting a white Escalade on April 29, as well as pictures of Lopez riding in what appears to be the same white Escalade the same day. According to Page Six, Affleck has allegedly visited his ex-fiancee three times since she returned to Los Angeles from shooting her new film, Shotgun Wedding, in the Dominican Republic.
“Security picks him up at a nearby location and drops him off after spending a few hours at her house,” a source tells Page Six about his visits.
Lopez has remained friendly with a few of her exes, most notably, Marc Anthony. “J. Lo makes it a point to have cordial relationships, especially with Marc, since he is the father of her children,” a source previously told ET.
Lopez is newly single after she and Rodriguez announced their split after four years of dating on April 15 with a joint statement, sharing that they realized they were better off as friends. They were spotted having dinner together at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles following their breakup, a source telling ET that they arrived separately and left separately.
Meanwhile, Affleck and Lopez got engaged in 2002 and split in 2004, but have remained friendly since. Affleck recently praised her to InStyle magazine.
“I don’t know whether people know it or not, but the most impressive thing about her (and that is a long list) was her extraordinary work ethic,” he shared. “She had this humility coupled with the basic assumption that not only did you have to work incredibly hard to succeed, you had to then push yourself even further.”
“I thought I had a good work ethic, but I was completely humbled and blown away by what she was committed to doing day in and day out, the seriousness in which she took her work, the quiet and dedicated way she went about accomplishing her goals, and then how she would go back and redouble her efforts,” he continued. “She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business. She has great talent, but she has also worked very hard for her success, and I’m so happy for her that she seems, at long last, to be getting the credit she deserves.”
Affleck also commented on Lopez’s ageless looks, asking, “Where are you keeping the fountain of youth? Why do you look the same as you did in 2003 and it kind of looks like I’m in my 40s…at best?”
Lopez laughed off the compliment, replying, “Ben is funny! He still looks pretty good too.”
In January, Affleck also talked about the “sexist, racist” scrutiny Lopez faced during their relationship when he appeared on The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast.
“People were so f**king mean about her — sexist, racist, ugly, vicious s**t was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said,” he said. “Now it’s like, she’s lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she f**king should be! I would say you have a better shot, coming from the Bronx, of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than you do of having Jennifer Lopez’s career and being who she is at 50 years old today.”
Lopez and Affleck’s much-publicized relationship definitely also left its mark on Lopez. In her 2014 memoir, True Love, Lopez called her failed relationship with Affleck “her first real heartbreak” and talked about quickly moving on with Anthony.
“It felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest,” she shared. “People do lots of things to anesthetize themselves in moments like these. Some people do drugs, some drink and some go out and party.”
“I sought out comfort in another person, tried to find someone who could make me feel loved and wanted in my loneliest hours,” she continued. “And that was the moment when Marc reappeared in my life.”
