Ben Affleck Looks Back at Relationship with Jennifer Lopez & The 'Vicious' Comments She Received

Ben Affleck is looking back at his relationship with Jennifer Lopez and how they were the topic of tabloid coverage.

The two-time Oscar winner began dating Jennifer back in July 2002 after meeting on the set of the critically panned movie Gigli. They got engaged three months later and their planned wedding for September 2003 was postponed just four days before the date because of “excessive media attention.” They later split in January 2004.

Ben opened up to THR for the Awards Chatter podcast and talked about the “Bennifer” days.

“You know, there’s always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially,” Ben said. “Still, to this day, [some] will go, ‘I see you out there in the paparazzi and the pictures!’ It’s like, ‘Yes, I left my house and took out the trash. It’s not like I’m trying to—’ And it’s still like, ‘You were taking a pap walk!’”

Ben continued, “As if, if you leave your house, you’re only doing so in the hope that you could be so lucky that you could end up as the sixth item in The Daily Mail. It’s absurd!”

Click inside to find out what Ben Affleck said about the vicious comments Jennifer Lopez received at the time…

Ben says that he and Jennifer remain friends to this day and he talked about the things people used to say about her.

“People were so f–king mean about her — sexist, racist. Ugly, vicious sh-t was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said,” Ben said. “Now it’s like, she’s lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she f–king should be! I would say you have a better shot, coming from the Bronx, of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than you do of having Jennifer Lopez‘s career and being who she is at 50 years old today.”

Ben also discussed how his career was destroyed after that period of time in his life.

“I was actually in the very worst position you can be in in this business, which is you can sell magazines but not movie tickets,” he said. “People were just saying, ‘You’re worthless. You’re talentless. You’re a hack. You’re a cad. You’re a nobody. You’re shit.’ And I guess I function well when I have something to prove.”

Ben added, “I never thought to myself, ‘I have no talent. I really am an asshole. I really am some jerkoff shallow frat guy.’ I’ve never even been inside a fraternity, not that I have anything against it.’”

It was just announced that Ben has an exciting project in the works!