Ben Affleck Weighs in on Ex Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Hustlers’ Awards Snub After Revealing They Still Keep in Touch

Lately, Ben Affleck has been opening up about his sobriety and how he feels towards his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, following their divorce, but now, he’s talking about another ex — Jennifer Lopez. After several of the singer’s fans were angered at the fact that she was snubbed out of an Oscar for her role in Hustlers, Affleck is breaking his silence on the matter as well. Not only that, but he also revealed that the two have kept in touch after all these years even though they didn’t make it to the aisle with one another after the two broke off their engagement.

“She should have been nominated,” the 47-year-old told the New York Times. “She’s the real thing. I keep in touch periodically with her and have a lot of respect for her. How awesome is it that she had her biggest hit movie at 50? That’s f—ing baller.”

Affleck and Lopez started dating in 2003, then got engaged less than a year later but called it off in 2004.

The Argo director has been extremely open recently about his sobriety struggles and how he handles it now, along with his relationship with Garner.

“I never thought that I was gonna get divorced,” he revealed. “I didn’t want to get divorced. I didn’t want to be divorced person. I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children. And it upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was, and that was, and that was so painful and so disappointed in myself.”

The 47-year-old was married to Garner for 10 years, but they separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018. The two share three kids together, Violet, 14; Seraphina, 11, and Samuel, 7. The actor has gone to rehab twice in the last three years.

“I really don’t want my children to pay for my sins,” he said. “Or to be afraid of me. Which is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic. Do you think, ‘What if my dad gets drunk? What if he does something stupid? What if he ends up on TMZ and it’s on my news feed and other kids see it?’”

Affleck opened up about how he was able to take a year off and just be a dad following a video that was released by TMZ that showed him stumbling drunk. From that, he opened up about realizing that he doesn’t want to miss out on being present in his kids’ lives.