Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Photographed Together For the First Time Since March (2024)

When we say “remember the good old days,” the specific day “old day” is March 30, 2024. That’s because that’s when Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, the world’s favorite “will they, won’t they, oh wait, it’s been 17 years and they totally did!” couple was last photographed together, holding hands in New York City, before a 47-day blackout period where they weren't publicly seen in one another's company.

The couple ended their pictorial dry spell on Thursday evening, when they attended a school play for one of Affleck's children together. In Touch snagged footage of the couple in an SUV rolling up to the event, amidst rumors of turmoil in the relationship.

Representatives for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s requests for comment.

Lopez and Affleck first dated from 2002 to January 2004, getting engaged along the way before calling the whole thing off. In the years before their 2021 reunion, both had major relationships: Lopez was married to singer Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2011 and shares twins with him, and was also engaged to former Yankees player Alex Rodriguez along the way. Affleck was married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018; the two have three children.

Affleck and Lopez’s second-chance romance, complete with Vegas elopement and bonus ceremony in Savannah, as well as a legal name change, comes with self-documentation. Earlier this year, Lopez self-financed and released a documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, sharing many, many details of the couple’s many-chaptered love story.

Affleck was not terribly enthusiastic about participating, by his own telling, but there he was.

“Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’” he said in the doc. “And then I sort of realized 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.’ We're just two people with kind of different approaches trying to learn to compromise.”

Even Lopez acknowledged at a February screening of the doc that it was “scary” to be so vulnerable, and confirmed that Affleck had reservations.

“The other scary part was that I was bringing into it my husband, who was kind of the reluctant participant, silent participant and all,” she said. “I just said to him during one of the parts of the movie, I was like, ‘Is this weird?’ He’s like, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘You’re crazy.’ I told him he was crazy, not me. But I know that I’m a crazy one. I get that part.”

And it’s not like there hasn’t been scrutiny of the rebooted relationship. In January 2024, Lopez had had enough of the chatter about Affleck’s particularly meme-able facial expressions, firing back on the Golden Globes red carpet that that’s just kind of how his face looks.

“Ben is doing alright,” Lopez said. “You don’t need to worry about Ben, let me just tell you. He is good. He is happy. He is here—he is nominated. I'm chilling, I don’t understand what people are so pressed for.”

People are missing seeing that resting grumpy face alongside Lopez’s glowing, olive oil-fueled complexion. A few weeks ago, Lopez was a co-chair at the Met Gala 2024, and went stag. Affleck was reportedly filming on the west coast at the time, and attended the recent roast of Tom Brady solo. Additionally, Lopez liked an Instagram post in March that listed traits of unhealthy relationships, raising eyebrows. Lopez does not currently follow the account on Instagram.

According to E! News, both Lopez and Affleck were spotted out and about on Thursday ahead of their night out at the school play, apart, but both with visible wedding rings. The outlet said that Affleck was seen driving around Los Angeles with his be-ringed left hand hanging out of his car’s window, and Lopez rolled into a dance studio in LA wearing her own wedding ring.

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