It’s been 20 years in the making, but Bennifer is finally married. In an emotional message written out to her fans via her “On the JLo” newsletter, Jennifer Lopez revealed that she and Ben Affleck had tied the knot during an intimate Las Vegas ceremony Saturday (July 16).
“We did it,” she wrote. “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”
As anyone who’s paid attention to pop culture these past two decades knows, Mr. and Mrs. Affleck are one of Hollywood’s most prominent — and storied — celebrity couples. They first began dating back in 2002 after meeting on the set of Gigli, the first of two movies they would star in together (the second being Jersey Girl in 2004), before getting engaged that same year.
The couple delayed their 2003 wedding before calling it quits in 2004. Both moved on to marry other people and have kids, destined to be each other’s “the one that got away” — until last year. Lopez and Affleck were spotted together mid-2021 before going public that July. Then in April, they got engaged again.
Flash forward three months, and the couple has finally walked down the aisle. “Exactly what we wanted,” Lopez wrote of the ceremony. “Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world. Behind us two men held hands and held each other. In front of us, a young couple who made the three-hour drive from Victorville on their daughter’s second birthday — all of us wanting the same thing — for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.”
“When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another,” she added. “We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives.”
Keep reading to see everything Billboard knows about the long-awaited union of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck below.
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The Location
As confirmed by the new Mrs. Affleck in her newsletter, she and the Gone Girl actor were married in Las Vegas at A Little White Wedding Chapel. After waiting in line with four other couples to get a marriage license, Lopez says they almost didn’t make it to the venue in time by midnight — but the chapel kept its doors open for them.
“They graciously stayed open late a few minutes, let us take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed),” she wrote. “They even had Bluetooth for a (short) march down the aisle.”
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Special Guests
The ceremony was rather intimate, but a few lucky people Lopez called “the best witnesses you could ever imagine” were in the audience — her children. (She shares twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony, while Affleck has Violet, Seraphina and Samuel with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.)
“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with,” she wrote in her newsletter. “Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things-and worth waiting for.”
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J. Lo's Dresses
The singer didn’t spend the last 30 years being a fashion trendsetter to just wear one dress on her wedding day. The “Let’s Get Loud” singer first sported a simple, elegant dress she said in her newsletter was from an “old movie.” In a pre-ceremony video snapped by her hairstylist Chris Appleton, she twirls around to show off her full look — complete with bouncy curls in her hair and a glamorous, neutral-toned makeup look.
“I’ve had this dress for so many years and I’ve just been saving it, saving it, saving it,” she says in the video. “And now I’m wearing it on my wedding day.”
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Once she arrived at the chapel, she used a break room to change into her second outfit of the evening: a veil and bridal gown designed by Zuhair Murad, who was also behind the exquisite dress Lopez wore in her recent film Marry Me. Her stylist Rob Zangardi also shared photos of the wedding looks.
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Ben's Suit
Mr. Affleck also pulled something he already owned from his wardrobe: a tasteful white suit jacket. In a video shared by Lopez, the Gone Girl star shows off his look in the mirror after getting dressed in the wedding chapel’s small pink men’s bathroom. “And this is my wedding changing area,” the Oscar winner says while holding up his phone to the mirror.
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Her Rings
In a blissful Instagram photo from the morning after, the “Jenny From the Block” artist shows off her simple, shiny silver wedding band while comfy in bed. “Sadie! #iykyk,” she captioned the post, a reference to lyrics from Funny Girl: “I’m Sadie, Sadie, married lady.”
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Not pictured in the post-wedding photo is her green diamond engagement ring, though it’s definitely been photographed and shown off several times since Bennifer got engaged in April. “I always say the color green is my lucky color,” Lopez wrote in a previous On the JLo newsletter. “I’ve realized there are many moments in my life where amazing things happened when I was wearing green.”
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The Name Change
Lopez is taking Affleck’s last name, as revealed by the Hustlers star herself at the end of her wedding wrap-up newsletter. “Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things — and worth waiting for,” she signed off. “With love, Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.”
Legal documents reviewed by Billboard also indicate the name change, with the marriage license listing both “Party 2 Name: Lopez, Jennifer” and “Party 2 New Name: Affleck, Jennifer.” Lopez had previously revealed her intentions to take Affleck’s surname all the way back in 2003, during the couple’s first engagement.
“I think I’m going to stay with Jennifer Lopez, but my name will be Jennifer Affleck, obviously,” she told Pat O’Brien during a kitchen scene in Ben & Jen: A Dateline Special at the time.
She told you 20 years ago pic.twitter.com/PIMh2Zk8wl
— ⭐️ with a Y ⭐️ ☮️ (@wyntermitchell) July 17, 2022
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It Was Perfect
Who needs a huge wedding? As far as J. Lo is concerned, her intimate ceremony in Las Vegas was just what the couple had hoped for. “Exactly what we wanted,” were her exact words to her fans.
“It was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last,” she wrote in her newsletter. “Best night of our lives.”