With Jennifer Garner’s blessing, Ben Affleck and Jennifer are talking marriage
Jennifer Lopez must be looking forward to getting another engagement ring from Ben Affleck, as a new report says that the A-list couple are making plans to “spend the rest of their lives together.”
A report from Entertainment Tonight also said that Affleck’s ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, has given her stamp of approval for them to become engaged. To her, a happy, healthy and sober Affleck is what’s best for their three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.
“Jen Garner and Ben get along well,” a source told Entertainment Tonight. “She is understanding and supportive of Jen and Ben’s relationship. She knows Ben is doing well all around and at the end of the day, she just wants what’s best for the kids and for things to be seamless and unproblematic. She wants everyone to be happy and healthy, and her kids are always the priority.”
That Lopez, 52, and Affleck, 49, are preparing to take the next step in their relationship shouldn’t come as a surprise. They are reportedly in escrow to buy a $50 million estate together in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.
With 10 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, multiple kitchens, a pool, theater and gym, the mansion has plenty of space for a combined family, TMZ reported. In addition to Affleck’s three children, Lopez is the mother of 14-year-old twins, Max and Emme.
“Ben and Jen can’t wait to spend the rest of their lives together and know that they were destined to be together,” the source also Entertainment Tonight. “An engagement is on the table and it has been an ongoing conversation.”
Affleck and Lopez stunned celebrity watchers last spring when they began dating again, 17 years after they called off their first engagement. Affleck and Lopez enjoyed a dazzling, high-profile romance in the early 2000s, when each was on the rise as a major Hollywood A-lister.
The first time Affleck proposed to Lopez in 2002, he presented her with a 6.10-carat pink diamond engagement ring that reportedly cost $1.2 million. There’s no word on what happened to the ring — or whether Affleck could recycle it to present again to Lopez, but it was the third engagement ring Lopez had received at the time. She was previously married to restaurateur Ojani Noa and dancer Cris Judd.
After Affleck and Lopez called off their first engagement in 2004, each married other people, became parents and experienced personal and professional ups and downs.
Affleck, especially, struggled. Although he won an Academy Award in 1998 for co-writing the screenplay for “Good Will Hunting,” he made a string of unfortunate career choices in the mid-2000s. He regained industry respect when he turned to directing and appeared to settle down by marrying Jennifer Garner and having children.
Affleck’s then worsening struggles with gambling and alcohol addiction reportedly contributed to his split from Garner, which was finalized with their divorce in 2018. Affleck has since completed rehab, overcome a highly publicized relapse, and has returned to acting in films that mostly have been well-received.
Meanwhile, Lopez married singer Marc Anthony, the father of Max and Emme. Lopez and Anthony divorced in 2014, but they have maintained a friendly, co-parenting relationship. He also gave Lopez her fourth engagement ring, an 8.5-carat diamond.
Lopez received her fifth engagement ring — an 18-carat, emerald-cut diamond — when she embarked on a four-year romance with former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez. Their engagement ended around the time she began dating Affleck again.
For Affleck and Lopez, they are working this time around on making sure that “communication” is key, the source told Entertainment Tonight.
“They actively talk about what didn’t work in the past and use those experiences to strengthen their relationship now, for the future and for the sake of themselves and their families,” the source added. “They are committed to having a healthy, everlasting relationship.”