The Complete 20-Year Timeline of the Bennifer Saga

This timeline of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s relationship begins when they met on the set of ‘Gigli’ in 2002 and includes their reunion in Montana in May 2021 and Las Vegas wedding in July 2022.

It’s a Hollywood love story 20 years in the making. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez rekindled Bennifer over a week in Montana this May, now that the stars have realigned and they’re both single at the same time … again. Over less than two years, from 2002 to 2004, their glamorous romance fueled early-tabloid culture, set the standard for ship names, then fizzled out faster than it began. Within a year, they were married to Jennifer Garner and Marc Anthony, respectively, occupying celebrity news with other people. Now, they’re back to their old Y2K ways. Their 2021 reunion has inspired endless gossip (bless the “sources”), not to mention several essays devoted to our nearly two-decade-long cultural obsession with this perfectly odd couple. Sorry to everything Ben Affleck stands for, but no film could begin to encompass the daily drama (and hilarity) of his real life. Catch up on Bennifer with this timeline of their relationship across the ages.

‘Co-stars’ and ‘friends’

Early 2002: Pop star Jennifer Lopez and Hollywood golden boy Ben Affleck meet on the set of Gigli while Lopez is married to her second husband, Cris Judd. Where else does Ben Affleck meet any of his girlfriends at this point? Raya doesn’t exist yet.

April 2002: Affleck takes out a full-page ad in trade magazines to compliment J.Lo, which doesn’t exactly say “bestie vibes only.” “It has been nothing but an honor and a pleasure to work with you,” it reads, in part. “I only wish I were lucky enough to be in all your movies.” Signed: “With love, respect, and gratitude, Ben Affleck.”

July 24, 2002: “Co-stars” and “friends” Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are seen kissing and cuddling at a surprise-birthday party for the Leo superstar, one of the first events marking the start of their relationship with the tabloids.

July 26, 2002: J.Lo files for porce from husband No. 2 after a month of separation (but that’s a story for a prequel timeline).

August 5, 2002: People magazine pays $75,000 for nine photos of J.Lo and Ben Affleck riding in a Bentley convertible, including one where they “lip-lock.”

November 5, 2002: MTV’s TRL premieres the music video for “Jenny From the Block,” a Y2K mood board starring Bennifer, combining J.Lo’s roots with her new movie-star lifestyle. Ben famously leans over and kisses her butt while they sun on a yacht (yes, this relationship explains his early 2000s tan), and nobody here can blame him, really.

Benny From the Block

The Ass-Smooch Heard Round the World

While kissing a booty long-rumored to be worthy of a $27 million insurance policy is on many of our bucket lists, in 2008, Affleck said the music video was his “big regret” of the relationship. See, the song is a megabop asserting J.Lo’s street cred, but the video itself is about the public’s obsession with the couple, told through the literal lens of the paparazzi following them from lunch to the yacht to the gas station and home, hoping to catch intimate moments between Jenny from the block and Boston’s hometown hero. But worshipping J.Lo’s backside was a performance choice all his own. The video went early-2000s viral, so ultimately, exposing themselves to comment on their overexposure backfired. And we’re left with a grim ~~yet sexy~~ prediction of their hyperpublic downfall that even J.Lo tried to get removed from MTV and VH1 in 2004.

Engaged!

November 2002: By November, they’re engaged. Within months of her separation, Ben proposed to Jen at his mother’s house in Boston. “It’s just a blanket, a quilt of rose petals, all over the whole entire house,” Lopez remembered in an ABC exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer, announcing their engagement. “So many candles, and vases, bouquets. And my song ‘Glad’ was playing … I walk in and I was just, like, overwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting it, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’” The ring, a pink diamond the size of Affleck’s head, would go down in pop-culture monogamy history.

Bennifer takes Venice Film Festival.Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

September 10, 2021: Affleck and J.Lo end their summer of love at Venice Film Festival, making waves in the water taxis, on a balcony, and, finally, on their first red carpet since reuniting. Nineteen years since they first appeared as a couple at the Maid in Manhattan premiere, the couple arrived together for the premiere of Affleck’s The Last Duel and assumed those familiar positions on the red carpet, gazing deeply at one another and sharing kisses like we’re ~~not~~ watching. Cameras flashed, time folded in on itself. Lopez comes directly for Oscar Isaac’s viral red-carpet flirtation earlier this fest with intense eye contact and the raw sexual magnitude of a nude lip. If this is Bennifer acting, it’s better than any movie either of them have been in.

THEM AND THEM ONLY #BENNIFER ???❤️ pic.twitter.com/qWmfTqppUb
— 'Ciηdy (@iamcindyr__) September 10, 2021

September 13, 2021: Thanks to Lopez and Affleck, making out with masks on is now Met Gala behavior.

Bennifer is at the #MetGala pic.twitter.com/AWQFDx7pkE
— Vulture (@vulture) September 14, 2021

March 21, 2022: Bennifer reportedly become homeowners together. Things have been a little quite on the Bennifer front — while promoting her movie Marry Me, J.Lo said she was “trying not say too much” about her rekindled relationship. But rest assured that the couple is still going strong, to the tune of a $50 million mansion in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

April 8, 2022: Lopez announces via her On the J.Lo newsletter that she has gotten engaged to Affleck. In a short video, she tearfully looks at the giant green ring on her finger. The clip was set to the sound of her whispering “You’re perfect” in her song “Dear Ben,” which was released in the first year of their relationship. That’s what we call a full-circle moment, folks.

July 17, 2022: They did it, folks. Nineteen years after they chose not to get married the day before the wedding, Bennifer are married, and J.Lo announces it in her newsletter. This time, though, they did it “in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning” with kids, a far cry from the festivities of their first intended wedding. She notably signs the letter from “Jennifer Lynn Affleck,” so move over J.Lo, J.Aff is in the building. “In the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined,” writes J.Aff. “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.” We hope the happy couple got Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home.