Jennifer Lopez’s new documentary, which premieres Monday evening on Prime Video, is called The Greatest Love Story Never Told. Now, I imagine several people would like a word over this perplexing title, which was pulled directly from Ben Affleck’s private love letters to Lopez. We’ve surely got centuries of untold love stories that are begging to have their moment in the sun, but I appreciate Affleck’s audacity in labeling his own romance the most Shakespearean and deserving of them all. And I’d argue that this love story, regardless of how great Bennifer think it is, has been told several times over in various media. No matter! We’re getting an 87-minute documentary about it anyway.
In one scene of the film, as reported by Entertainment Tonight, Lopez and Affleck address a group of people as they discuss the events leading up to their 2003 breakup. As we know now, they later rekindled in 2021.
“Ben and I, we broke up three days before our wedding,” Lopez said. “We had a big wedding planned: 14 ushers and bridesmaids, and three days before we just crumbled under the pressure.”
“When Jen and I broke up before, the catalyst for that was the massive amount of scrutiny around our private life,” Affleck agreed straight to camera. “I think for us to move on from that, we have to forgive it, forgive each other. Do you forgive me?”
Lopez smiles without giving her now-husband a straight answer. “Do you think you’ve forgiven me all the way?” he prompts her again later.
“Yeah, I think I’ve forgiven you all the way,” Lopez responds. “I think I need to forgive myself for some things.”
I’m happy these two are, years later, still shouting their love from the rooftops, but I’d really prefer if they quietly drank their Dunkin’ in the privacy of their own home without telling us about it. Lopez hopes the couple’s documentary will convince people that “love exists,” but they convinced me long ago when Ben was photographed petting J.Lo’s butt on a yacht. Now that’s real love, baby.