In recent weeks, Jennifer Lopez’s manager and team decided to ease back on the wall-to-wall (de facto) press releases about how happy she is with Ben Affleck and how everything is amazing and look at them, in love again. I mean, those stories are still coming out, but we’re just not getting the daily updates. More like one or two weekly updates now. Ben and Jen spent the Independence Day holiday in the Hamptons, with some of her family and friends. It’s been less than three months, but I guess we need to hear that their relationship is super-strong and they’re spending more time with their kids:
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s bond appears to be getting more solid every day. A source tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that “their relationship is very strong,” and Lopez, 51, “is beyond happy” with Affleck, 48.
The singer and the Oscar winner recently jetted off to the Hamptons, where they were spotted enjoying a walk together on Saturday. The trip also included Lopez’s 13-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
“They were with family and friends and had several activities planned, including beach outings, boating and a BBQ,” the source tells PEOPLE.
Following their respective splits from Ana de Armas and Alex Rodriguez this year, Affleck and Lopez have been practically joined at the hip. “Ben always looks very happy when he is with Jen,” a source recently told PEOPLE, as another insider said of Lopez, “She spends as much time with Ben as possible.”
The couple has been getting to know each other’s kids as Lopez plots a move from Miami to Los Angeles, where Affleck is based. “Ben is slowly getting to know [Jennifer’s] kids, and his son is also spending time with Jennifer and her kids,” says the source in this week’s issue. (Affleck shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: son Samuel, 9, plus daughters Seraphina, 12, and Violet, 15.)
I wonder what Seraphina and Violet think about all of this, and I wonder how Jennifer Garner has framed their dad’s latest relationship. I tend to believe Garner is just as nutty as any other celebrity, but she genuinely seems like a great mother and I doubt Garner is, like, bad-mouthing J.Lo to her kids. But the oldest girl especially is old enough to understand a lot of what’s going on. As for how Marc Anthony feels… I mean, by all accounts, Marc and Jennifer are still really close and they regularly vacation together and spend lots of time together as a family. I kind of wonder how Marc and Ben feel about each other! Anyway, a messy modern family. Or at least it will be once Ben dusts off that pink diamond. NOOOO! We cannot get ahead of ourselves. I need Bennifer to last for months!!
The photos in this post are from Ben and Jen’s shopping excursion in the Hamptons this week. He drove, and Jennifer’s kids were with them. There are some poor-quality shots of Ben with Emme walking around.
Ben Affleck bonds with Jennifer Lopez's daughter Emme as the trio enjoy a shopping trip https://t.co/rEmzvqZ14c
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) July 7, 2021
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
I am not American, so Iam guessing the Hamptons are where the rich New Yorkers go for Summer vacay and then swiftly abandon it after ? How is their economy after the season ends?
Summer people spend enough during the season to power the rest of the year.
Not to mention property taxes on all of those second homes.
I work in an area very similar to the Hamptons, many of the businesses are seasonal, and only open during the summer months. It’s been a little different with so many people staying here year-round during the pandemic, but usually it’s very quiet from about November to April. My job is year-round, and it’s usually a relief when everyone goes home in the fall, and then fun when everything opens up again in the spring.
First of all, the drive to the Hamptons is anywhere between 2 -4 hours from the city depending on traffic and how far east you are going. There’s a helicopter service that costs upwards of $600 a seat and a bus, the Jitney as alternatives to driving. Parts of the Hamptons are unbearably overcrowded in the summer. Traffic is a nightmare, as is parking. Only residents have parking permits for the beach lots in Montauk, and the lots fill up pretty quickly. So non-residents who pay easily $500 – 1000 / night for a basic hotel room or Air BnB can’t even park at the beach. It’s a bit of a shit show. I rented for 10 days in Montauk last summer and it cost $900/night and I took a taxi to and from the beach. Just seeing Ben walking around East Hampton shopping with Emme gave me anxiety. It’s just so crowded all summer. The off season is less hectic but many city dwellers still go out on weekends. The Hamptons are great if you mostly hang at your mansion, around your big pool, in your beautiful private yard. But it’s not where I would choose for a beach vacation as a non-resident.
Isn’t her house in Montauk? Maybe I am wrong. Anyway, I love Montauk, but it HAS become more like the Hamptons over the past 5-10 years I guess. At least the last 5. It’s still better than the Hamptons. I won’t go there until fall, when it’s just as nice and much less crowded.
We have a house on LI but it’s not in “The Hamptons,” at least not a part where there is a crush and scene. At least half of our neighborhood is people who live here year round and/or grew up here, and our Main Street is pretty dead except for the bagel shop in Summer. And we don’t get the terrible traffic either, though the Jitney stops here.
It’s true that you have to have a sticker to park at the beach, but you can also pay $25 to park for a full day at the public beaches, which are very nice with a snack bar and facilities.
I can’t deal with the craziness of, say, East Hampton or Bridgehampton. They’re lovely when they empty out a bit in the fall, but SO expensive. Just going to the grocery store is a nightmare and you pay through the nose. The farmsteads are very nice though.
My husband is from Montauk & I am from Water Mill. I *believe* JLo’s house is in Water Mill or Bridgehampton. We moved off LI in 2003 as the East End became overrun with NYC people who moved out their full time after 9/11. We go back to visit intermittently.
After 9/11, the “season” became extended. Many families moved out there full-time and other people opened up their houses earlier (some as early as April, as opposed to Memorial Day in late May) and often return each weekend until Columbus Day (early October). The rest of the year is fairly quiet, however many people do use their “weekend houses” year-round. Many business (restaurants, boutiques, etc.) do make their money during the “season,” but the service providers (building trades, oil companies, etc.) do their business year round – the “year round” businesses are great about letting the “regular” people know how much their business is valued.
What’s going on in the top photo? That distorted image of Ben looks super creepy.
I think he is standing outside the car and his face is reflected in the window.
I might be mis-reading this, but I actually think these two have known each other and hung out/hooked up for years now? I bet they already know each other’s kids ‘oh that’s mommy’s friend Ben’ etc
If they’d been hanging out in the last years, we would know. They would have wanted us to know.
I actually have wondered if JLo’s & ARod’s relationship was not over earlier than they stated in the press (April 2021?). I wondered if they split up in late 2020 and kept it up for appearances due to their business deals. I further thought Ben might have reached out to her earlier than they stated (February?), so I think they have been in close touch way longer than their camps want us to know so that they each appear innocent. I mean – if JLo was emailing with Ben while ARod was sliding into random women’s DMs – how would that look for her? 😉
@Mustang sally
Oh definitely!
My personal take is that when news leaked last Fall that Arod was dm-ing the reality “star”
It was over.
JLo set up the narrative and stretched it out
So that they could do the inauguration and then end it
So she rolled out the breakup and what could Arod do? Nothing bc god knows his wandering DM was not the issue. He was actively cheating. And she agreed to keep that private for his kids for her ego what have you
And she controls the narrative. So he looks like a scumbag fool
And then Ben slides in and it seems like we all saw her as victim to Arod being gross so
JLo comes out looking “good”
Bc of course she and Ben were probably ready to go public
But she was able to hold Ben off until after the inauguration
She kept her head and stuck to the scheduled roll out and now she’s fully in a relationship with him and the timing is the best it could be considering.
These two are such attention whores. Sad her kids are a part of this mess. I have all the sympathy in the world for Jennifer Gardner at this point being attached to Ben at all. Every picture of Bennifer I see they reek of desperation.
Emme’s expression says it all. She looks angry and sad. Why do they need to go shopping, and drag J-Lo’s children into this media circus? Very selfish.
Agree. These kids obviously have nannies so why can’t one of them bring them to the bookstore? Absolutely no need for the Ben and Jen Show here. I regularly go to this store when I’m in Montauk, and there are never any paps around. There are so many stars out there during the summer and they are left alone. Someone called the paps to tell them they were on the way.
In the linked story, there is a short video. Emme has a friend with her, and Ben tries to put an arm around her to guide her…and she stops and shrugs his arm off. It seemed the gesture was uncomfortable for her.
They’re a big story right now. Paparazzi are following them. There’s video of Jennifer and her manager Benny being followed by car back to their home in Water HIll.
Jennifer Garner is no stranger to getting their kids papped too.
Right on @Louisa. Montauk, though becoming more “Hampton-like,” is still pretty quiet and the paps stay away. I would see Robert DeNiro regularly in the bakery and he was quiet, polite, unassuming and clearly did not want attention. There are a lot of celebrity homes in Montauk because they want peace & quiet. Bennifer’s pap walk right down Main Street in East Hampton made me want to vomit with it’s, “LOOK AT ME!” quality.
They’re hardly doing a pap walk down Main Street. You can’t even properly see JLo’s face!
The kids are going to have trauma. Having people in and out of your life like this on a regular basis creates big detachment issues. Parents do so much harm… leave the kids out of it. It is possible.
I’m sure it’s just me but I hate how she drags her kids into her romances so quickly. It’s fine if she wants to jump right into new romances but give your kids some breathing space before you are suddenly vacationing with “uncle Ben”
Those kids are the only part of this story that isn’t funny.
The revolving door of men. She is not the only one, sadly. Men do it too.
Yeah these pics are giving me anxiety. He looks angry/tense. The kid looks miserable. JLO looks oblivious.
How weird must it be for her kids when they were not only ensconced with ARod but his daughters too and were “happy family” all over social media? I also think she’d want to play it a little bit cooler than having her PR flacks talk about how happy she is with him?
I’ll give it a little bit of a pass because they’ve been engaged before and known each other for 20 years, so this isn’t a “new” relationship exactly. But on the other hand, what is JLo’s custody situation? Can’t she spend time with Ben when the kids are with their Dad? Or get a baby sitter? It isn’t the kids being around Ben so much as it is the instant family vacation.
And where is Ben’s son? I know JG is in Paris with the girls so shouldn’t Ben be with his son instead of his girlfriend and her kids?
It looks like everyone is now back in LA . . .
@Louisa: He was left with a nanny for the four day holiday weekend. Only a Ben fan site had the pictures of Ben leaving him. They were blackballed by DM or bought up I guess because it didn’t fit his good dad narrative. Who knows, maybe he insisted on staying in LA by himself because he knew it would be a shit show in the Hamptons. I saw a video of JLo out without Ben and tourists and paps were staring, taking pictures, catcalling and surrounding her. It looked like the least chill place to vacation in the US. I wouldn’t have left my mansion but then I’m not JLo or Ben. I side-eye a lot of their decisions.
Jennifer has said she has sole custody and that mark pays no child support.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of one Marc’s other ex-wives? I don’t follow these people super closely, but I always got the impression that Marc was pretty involved with the twins. I think they may have even lived with him primarily at some points over the last few years in when they were in school in Miami. Jennifer and Arod both spent a lot of time working in NYC.
I do recall one of Marc’s ex-wives (I forget her name-she’s a Puerto Rican beauty queen) accused him of basically abandoning their kids. She actually complained that he paid more child to support to Jlo than her.
Jennifer has primary custody. I don’t think Marc is all that involved or that they do joint vacations. He has minor children in multiple states so he can’t be that hands-on with them.
Get papped with them first, get to know them later.
These poor kids.
This is bad for her brand. His brand is white maleness – which means he gets forgiven for anything as long as it’s not that bad. Poor kids. His kids are used to this sh**
JLo’s schtick is to always have a man ‘wanting’ her & when JRod embarrassed her publicly this is what she’s done to change the narrative. She’s over 50 now too so she really has kicked into high gear the whole ‘I’m still desirable & young looking, men are still after me!’ They’re loving that they are two middle aged stars who are having a resurgence of their early 2000s glory days. I feel bad for all the kids involved.
Arod embarrassed her and now she is with another cheater who cheated on her too. Is she ready for a new emparasment? I wonder if these people have any worries about their health or about their children mental health.
Jennifer and Ben don’t care about any one else except themselves. The kids are expected to join the parade too bc JLo absolutely loses herself in any relationship, and Ben likes his pap shots.
That said this is probably not the worst both sets of kids have endured of their parents’ narcissism and need for public attention. Yes, bring on the pink diamond.
How many times are her kids going to need to “bond” with mommy’s boyfriend? They just lost the last one a few months ago. Give it some time Jen!
Yeah I just watched the full video of Ben and Emme & her friend going into the bookstore. She doesn’t appear to be “bonding” with him to me.
Two nasty people playing PR games while harming their children. Losers, both of them.
I feel sorry for the kids. And that I never thought Bennifer 2.0 would happen, but here we are. I keep thinking of that video they made together. I’m here for the train wreck.
You can see in his face that he’s checked out. Now he just needs to pick a way to get out of this mess he’s helped to create. Watch, wait and see. I predict around August/September, once the kids are back in school and summer starts to cool off, there will be a scandal or some kind of break.
He does look completely checked out, honestly I don’t know he ever “checked in.” In my opinion, the make out session at her sister’s bday party was the only time he looked relatively happy. Even this past weekend at Universal Studios, he wasn’t even holding her hand. He was holding a mask and she was clinging onto him. He could have put it in his pocket. It was just strange. His body language has been off with her this time around. 17 years ago they were comfortable together and now he doesn’t look comfortable at all, but she looks like she completely is.
I know this is horrible to think, but I had the thought that he would ghost her (although I don’t think anyone should be ghosted, but…) I feel like he would do that maybe…
Same thought as above, but maybe he’ll do the gentleman thing and ask her to dump him first, just to save face.
He was properly holding her hand in some of the photos. The photos where he was holding the mask were probably taken over a really short period of time.
Or maybe Ben is white-knuckling it right now regarding his alcoholism, dealing with internal demons, and that’s the checked-out look, and that look has nothing to do with Jennifer Lopez. In fact, he might be clinging to her, needing her right now as his stability. She does understand Ben because of their history. It’s not like Ben has had years of being completely sober. He is fragile in that sense when you look at his struggles. He’s been doing good for the last year and a half, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for him.
Hmm…okay…let’s wait and see, shall we
Poor kids, is all I’ll say.
lmao “slowly”. emme’s face says it all, I feel bad for the kids being dragged into this media mess.
New Blind Item up, sounds exactly like them. The female celebrity got a STD and is furious, not knowing if its from her ex, or current beau she is back together with.
Maybe that is why she has been wearing loose comfortable, baggy pants, which was out of character for her, lol!
ARod is famous for spreading herpes around. Feel bad for all the exes he never tells…that’s why I thought it weird JLo chose him bc he really is one of few people who’ve been outted as spreading it to partners. Another is Derek Jeter, Usher, Paris Hilton…a certain hunky superhero had a court case squashed in Michigan that would have outted him as giving it to local girls….
Emme & her friend don’t look like they are bonding with Ben.. Girls that age don’t want to hang out with Mom& Dad, let alone Mom’s new rebound boyfriend! In the one pic, Ben is actually guiding Emme’s friend , instead of Emme! ( he has his hand on her back) I have to agree with others that he looks totally checked out! Shopping with these two young girls, while he dropped his son off with a nanny at home!
Who knows, maybe Sam didn’t want to go with them. I don’t think Violet or Seraphina are interested in bonding with JL anytime soon. Violet is old enough & seems extremely mature for her age.i am sure she has seen the pics of her father & JL making out at the restaurant on her sister’s birthday among other pics. I noticed Ben & JL. have toned down their PDA now that they are trying to blend their families. Why such a rush to do this? JL’s children have had a huge loss in their life with not seeing AR’s girls, particularly Emme! While JL has moved on incredibly quickly, her children most likely were not ready! &( She was with AR for 4 yrs.!) as a parent, your first priority is your child(ren) & what is best for them!
Even though, they dated & were engaged, that was 17 years ago & people change.
This is not going to end well …