Why J-Lo and Ben Affleck are the modern-day Burton and Taylor
After months of speculation, this week it was reported that one of Hollywood’s most iconic power couples are calling it a day (again). Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are allegedly ready to file for divorce, after they were both spotted without their wedding rings, and he stepped out with a “new-me” punk-rock look: skinny-jeans, leather jacket and a remarkable close-cropped hairdo known as a “faux-hawk”.
The past couple of weeks have seen other tell-tale signs too. Affleck missed J-Lo’s Bridgerton-themed 55th birthday party 10 days ago, for example, choosing to buy himself an ￡18m “bachelor pad” on the same day instead. Meanwhile Lopez was pictured house-hunting and their marital home was put up for sale (for $68m). A week earlier, they reportedly spent their wedding anniversary apart.
It’s a sad ending for the Bennifer love story, which stretches over more than two decades. But maybe it’s not really the end? Because with their on-again-off-again romance, their love of sparkling diamonds, and their public drama-fuelled arguments, Bennifer remind us of another turmoil-filled epic Hollywood romance – Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
And if they’re following Liz and Dick’s example, they’ve got a couple more marriages and splits to go.
Sparks first fly on set
She is a former dancer turned pop star turned actress. He is a writer and actor with aspirations to direct. Both are at the height of their fame in 2001 when they meet on the set of the movie Gigli. J-Lo is still married to her second husband, Chris Judd, but sparks fly between her and Affleck. The film bombs but Bennifer become the Noughties “it” couple. “We didn’t try to have a public relationship,” said Lopez. “We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like ‘Oh my God.’ It was just a lot of pressure.”
They first met in 1953, when he was a little-known Welsh actor attending a Hollywood party at Jean Simmons’ house. She was an established movie star and found him “swaggering and vulgar”. But nine years’ later they found themselves co-stars in Rome, filming the epic <Cleopatra>. From their first love scene the two were smitten and despite both being married to other people, they began an obsessive affair which Burton referred to as “le scandale”. They married in 1964.
Paparazzi darlings and the hedonistic years
Ben makes a cameo in J-Lo’s music video for “Jenny from the Block” and in November they get engaged, with Lopez flashing a 6.1-carat pink diamond from Harry Winston that reportedly cost Affleck $2.5 million. They starred in another movie together, Jersey Girl, but in 2003, days before their wedding, they call it off blaming paparazzi scrutiny. But in January 2004 they announce that the relationship is over. Bennifer is no more.
Over the next few years “Dickenliz” jetted around the world spending lavishly on each other. Burton once bought a $960,000 private jet on a whim after they flew to Paris in it. Taylor bought Burton a Van Gogh and hung it in his suite in the Dorchester. Richard showered Elizabeth in jewellery, including the 33.19 Krupp diamond and a La Peregrina pearl, which Liz accidentally fed to one of their Pekingese puppies.
Can’t live, can’t live without…
Ben and Jen both marry and have children with other people (Jennifer Garner and Marc Anthony respectively), but they both get divorced and in 2021 they reunite. They reconnect on a week-long holiday in Montana, and in 2022 they’re engaged again, after Affleck proposes to her in the bath with an emerald-cut, pale green diamond. “I just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again” wrote Lopez on Instagram. In 2022, they married in Vegas, had a honeymoon in Paris and then married again at Affleck’s estate in Georgia and had a second honeymoon in Italy. But memes were made about Affleck’s sulky appearance at the 2023 Grammys. In their documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Affleck spoke about the compromises he’d made. “Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’ ” he says. “Then I sort of realised it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, ‘Well, I don’t like the water.’” By May 2024 rumours swirled that they were separating.
Burton was often bemused and bored by Taylor’s royal and aristocratic friends, including Princess Grace of Monaco, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Princess Margaret. The couple were famous for their public screaming matches and featured smashed TVs and trashed hotel rooms. “I will accuse her of being ugly, she will accuse me of being a talentless son of a bitch,” said Burton. The fights worsened as Taylor’s addiction to pills and Burton’s alcoholism tore them apart. They were divorced in 1974, only to remarry in 1975, and divorced again less than a year later. They would always be in contact until Burton’s death in 1984. “In my heart, I will always believe we would have married a third and final time,” said Taylor, who died in 2011.
