Jennifer Lopez has shared that she and husband Ben Affleck have "PTSD" after the media frenzy they faced when first dating.
The pair were engaged but split up in 2004, only to rekindle their romance in April 2021 and exchange wedding vows the following year.
In a new interview with Variety, Lopez, 54, admitted she has some concerns about putting her love life in the spotlight again.
"As artists, we have to follow our heart and this is me following my heart and doing something that maybe everybody didn’t think was the best idea, but I had to do it," she told the outlet.
"We both have PTSD," Lopez added about the media attention she and Affleck, 51, received.
"But we’re older now. We’re wiser," Lopez continued. "We also know what’s important, what’s really important in life, and it’s not so much what other people think. It’s about being true to who you are."
Last year, Lopez opened up about the pain she experienced when she and Affleck first split, saying that it was "the biggest heartbreak of my life."
"I honestly felt like I was going to die," she said in an interview with Apple Music 1.
Lopez went on to describe how their split sent her on a "spiral for the next 18 years," during which she felt she "just couldn't get it right."
"But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending," she said. "It has the most 'would never happen in Hollywood' ending."
In a 2022 interview with People, Lopez highlighted how things had changed between herself and Affleck since reconnecting.
"We're older now, we're smarter, we have more experience, we're at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things," she said.
The pair are parents to five kids between them.
"It's a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other," Lopez continued. "We always did, but we have even more of an appreciation because we know that life can take you in different directions."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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