Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were finally captured in the same photo together smiling since they began spending time together last month, sparking romance rumors. On Sunday, Affleck flew to Miami to meet with Lopez, and photos surfaced of the two outside the waterfront mansion Lopez is saying at. The two were famously engaged in 2003 before breaking things off in 2004. Their reunion comes after Lopez’s split from Alex Rodriguez.
One of the photos published by TMZ shows Affleck standing behind Lopez on a staircase, with Lopez grinning from ear to ear. Another photo showed Affleck standing on the balcony of the mansion smoking, without trying to hide his identity from photographers. Lopez was also seen standing at the balcony window, with her back to the camera.
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When the two first began seeing each other, they took great pains to avoid paparazzi cameras capturing them in the same picture. In one case late last month, Affleck even drove to a Los Angeles hotel so he could be picked up by one of Lopez’s drivers, who took her to her home. On May 10, The Daily Mail published photos of the two in an SUV together during their trip to Montana, where Affleck owns a home.
“Ben and Jen spent several days together in Montana,” a source told Us Weekly on May 10. “It was just the two of them on vacation together. Big Sky is a special place to Ben.” The insider added that the two “looked very happy together.” After the Montana trip, they went back to Los Angeles together. Lopez left California by herself, but she reportedly came back to Los Angeles earlier this week. “They were excited to reunite after being apart for a few days. She had a break in her work schedule and wanted to see him again,” a source told E! News.
Lopez and Affleck have still not publicly commented on their relationship status. One source told Us Weekly they do not want to “jinx anything” by putting a label on their relationship. “When the time is right and assuming things continue to evolve romantically between them, likely a month or two, they’ll probably go Instagram official or step out hand in hand at a restaurant somewhere,” the source explained.
Their aversion to making a press statement on their relationship might be due to the media firestorm their engagement caused in the early 2000s. After their split, they remained friends, with Affleck even praising Lopez in recent interviews. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in January, he recalled the “sexist, racist” comments Lopez faced during their engagement. “Ugly, vicious s— was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now, you would literally be fired for saying those things you said,” the Gone Girl actor said at the time. “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—ing should be.”
