Jennifer Lopez, now Mrs. Affleck, explains why she took Ben's last name: 'It's romantic'
Introducing, Jennifer Affleck.
The singer, known to beloved fans as Jennifer Lopez, opened up about changing her last name after marrying Ben Affleck in July, calling it a "traditional" and "romantic" decision.
In a Vogue December cover story, Lopez responded to a New York Times opinion piece that suggested her choice to take her husband's name stood against feminist ideals.
"What? Really?" she asked. "People are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez. But my legal name will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together," the "Marry Me" star said. "We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem."
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The singer was asked about the possibility of Affleck changing his last name to Lopez, to which she replied: "It's not traditional. It doesn't have any romance to it. It feels like it's a power move."
"I’m very much in control of my own life and destiny and feel empowered as a woman and as a person. I can understand that people have their feelings about it, and that’s okay, too," Lopez said.
She added: "But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic. It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl."
Lopez first introduced her new name in her "On the JLo" newsletter announcing her wedding. She signed the email with "Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
"It's not the first time Lopez said she would take Affleck's name. When the couple first engaged In 2002, she proudly declared in a 2003 Dateline special that professionally she was "going to stay with Jennifer Lopez, but my name will be Jennifer Affleck."
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Known by the moniker, J-Lo, she also joked in the Dateline interview about becoming J-Aff, which she said "doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but you’ve gotta make sacrifices."
"She's much more traditional than I anticipated she would be," Affleck said during the joint interview.
The two broke off their first engagement in 2004 and moved on to other love interests — with Lopez marrying Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2014 and getting engaged to Alex Rodriguez in March 2019, before calling it quits in April 2021. Meanwhile, Affleck was married to actress Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018.
Lopez and Affleck rekindled their romance in 2021. In July, they tied the knot in an intimate Las Vegas chapel wedding, before throwing a star-studded second wedding at Affleck's Georgia estate a month later.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jennifer Lopez on taking Ben Affleck's last name: 'It's romantic'
