Ana De Armas Reflects on ‘Horrible’ Part of Ben Affleck Relationship

Before Ben Affleck rekindled his romance with Jennifer Lopez, he was briefly dating his Deep Water co-star Ana de Armas. In an interview published days before Affleck and Lopez married, the 007 actress recalled the worst part of the relationship for her. The media scrutiny became so intense while together, it prompted de Armas to leave Los Angeles altogether.

De Armas, 34, told Elle the media attention was “horrible.” The Gray Man star said that was “one of the reasons” why she left Los Angeles. She now lives in New York with her boyfriend, Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis. The experience of living under the watchful eye of the Los Angeles paparazzi made the de Armas uncomfortable.

“Going through it [myself] confirmed my thoughts about, ‘This is not the place for me to be,’” the Knives Out star told Elle. “It became a little bit too much. There’s no escape. There’s no way out… It’s always the feeling of something that you don’t have, something missing. It’s a city that keeps you anxious.”

De Armas doesn’t even use social media or Google herself that much. “I deleted Twitter years ago,” she told Elle. “I have barely been on Instagram for almost a year.”

De Armas’ comments confirmed one of the reports about her and Affleck’s split. In January 2021, one source told PEOPLE that de Armas did not want to be based in Los Angeles, where Affleck’s children live. “She broke it off. Their relationship was complicated. Ana doesn’t want to be Los Angeles based and Ben obviously has to since his kids live in Los Angeles,” the source said. Another source said their split was mutual and amicable.

Notably, the media scrutiny Lopez, 51, and Affleck, 49, faced during their first relationship was one of the reasons things didn’t work out. They get engaged in November 2002 and when they postponed their wedding in September 2003, they cited the “excessive media attention.” They ended their engagement in January 2004. After reuniting in April 2021, Lopez and Affleck sought to keep their relationship out of the media so they could make announcements on their own terms. One of those big announcements came in April when Lopez shared the news of their engagement in her newsletter.

De Armas will next be seen in Netflix’s most-expensive movie ever, The Gray Man, which will be available to stream on Friday. She also stars in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, Netflix’s first NC-17 movie. De Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in the adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ fictional novel about the actress’ life. Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, and Castar Phillipson also star.

“I do want to play Latina. But I don’t want to put a basket of fruit on my head every single time,” de Armas told Elle about her career. “So that’s my hope, that I can show that we can do anything if we’re given the time to prepare, and if we’re given just the chance, just the chance. You can do any film – Blonde – you can do anything. The problem is that sometimes you don’t even get to the room with the director to sit down and prove yourself.”