Do you know how much I LOVE vintage celebrity gossip? Do you know how awesome it is to be able to go back through old photos of, say, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez? I love it. I love looking back at their time together – circa 2002-03 – and seeing the look on Ben’s face in so many of the photos. He looks trapped. He looks like he’s in over his head. It was never going to last with those two, but it was so much fun while they were together.

Anyway, Us Weekly’s new issue brings us some vintage Bennifer 1.0. According to sources, Jennifer Lopez’s MOM reached out to Ben as Jennifer’s marriage was faltering, and he gave her advice! Hahahaha. Relationship advice from Ben Affleck! It’s like sobriety advice from Charlie Sheen.

Ben will always be in Jen’s corner. Although Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck famously called off their engagement and 18-month romance in January 2004, the actor was happy to help as his ex’s 7-year marriage to Marc Anthony was falling apart.

Guadalupe Lopez, the singer-actress’s mother (and plus-one at the July 9 BAFTA bash with the royals in Hollywood), sought Affleck’s advice on July 12, multiple sources confirm in the new Us Weekly, out Wednesday.

“Guadalupe reached out to Ben over email. She wanted advice for Jennifer,” reveals a source. “She always liked and trusted him. [Ben] replied back on email, wished her well and offered what he could,” the source says of Affleck, 38, now happily married with two daughters to Jennifer Garner. (Lopez, now 41, wed Latin crooner Anthony, 42, just months after she and Affleck split.)

Three days after that secret email exchange with Affleck, Lopez and Anthony announced the end of their union in a joint statement. “It was a very bad marriage, and Jennifer got the courage to end things,” an insider says, adding, “[Marc] was a terrible husband.”

At issue: Anthony’s raging jealousy over Lopez’s career, his compulsion to control everything from her business endeavors and even her famous wardrobe, and, according to multiple sources, at least one extra-marital affair in 2009.

And despite her ultra-glamourous, ultra-confident persona in the public eye, Lopez “actually has low self-esteem,” one pal explains. “And Marc really played into that insecurity. That’s why she put up with his abuse for such a long time.”

For much more on the shocking split — what’s at stake, their money squabbles, who will get 3-year-old twins Max and Emme and whether she’s ready to date again — pick up the new Us Weekly, out today.

[From Us Weekly]

Oooh, you knew this was going to get dirty. I said it, everybody said it. Now here’s Us Weekly coming out and using the word “abusive” and “affair” and painting Jennifer as the poor little victim. My gossip golden rule: if someone is trying this hard to convince you of something, you know the opposite is true. I’m not saying that Marc isn’t a bastard… he very likely is. But let’s not pretend that Jennifer suffers from low self-esteem. Let’s not pretend that she waited this long to leave him because he controlled everything. She simply didn’t want to go through a third divorce, and have her image take a hit. She wanted THIS marriage to work, no matter what, and was willing to deal with his crap for too long.

Also: I would really like to know what advice Ben gave. I would pay good money to read that email.

OMG! Remember when Ben and J.Lo used to do interviews together?!?! I have never forgotten the genius of this Dateline special.

Photos courtesy of Fame, WENN.