Jennifer Lopez claims her breakup with Ben Affleck 20 years ago catapulted both their careers.
The singer noted that they focused on work despite realizing they were "crazy" for each other after they met on the set of 2003's Gigli and became engaged, before calling off their wedding in September of that year.
“I think what happened is that as we worked together, we became such good friends. We realized we were crazy about each other,” she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to announce her new album, This Is Me… Now.
“I found myself thinking about him in some ways after the movie ended. And I had to mind my own business because I was coming out of a relationship at the time," he continued.
“But it's like you knew. It's like saying, "This is the man I want to be with." And this happened over a period of a few months. It wasn't an instant thing because we weren't allowed to do that. Yes, it evolved over time," he explained.
Jennifer Lopez also blamed the media coverage her breakup with Ben Affleck received at the time.
"It was something new and it destroyed us. What destroyed us was partly the external energy coming at us. And we loved each other. It was difficult," he admitted.
"It felt, at times, unfair, but neither of us is the type of person who would say, 'Woe to me.' So we said, 'Well, we've got to get rid of it and move on,'" he added.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck went on to pursue successful careers in music and film, married different partners and had children after their split, before reuniting in 2021 and finally tying the knot last summer.
"I think, in the weirdest way, the breakup motivated both of us to become who we became and do the things that we ended up doing, which is to go into overdrive," the singer said.
“He was speeding and I was speeding. But not together. We had to do it separately," he emphasized.
“He started directing, won his Oscar, got his second Oscar, did his own thing, and people had kind of written him off. The same thing happened to me," Jennifer Lopez said.