Ben Affleck Opens Up About the Embarrassment of His Divorce from Jennifer Lopez

American actor and filmmaker, Ben Affleck has spoken out on his ’embarrassing’ divorce from Jennifer Lopez in a rare remark.

The pair, who were famously engaged in the early 2000s, before breaking it off and later rekindling their romance almost two decades later divorced earlier this year after two years of marriage.

In a recent cover interview for GQ‘s April 2025 issue, Affleck, 52, admitted that “there’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue” behind his breakup from the actress-singer.

“The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’ Well, there is no, ‘This is what happened,’ ” said the Accountant 2 star. “It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do.”

Affleck went on to say that he has noticed, as he “gets older,” that “there is no ‘So-and-so did this’ or ‘This was the big event’ ” rather, “It sounds more like a couple’s therapy session, which — you would tune out of someone else’s couple’s therapy after a while.”

“For one thing, you start going, ‘Okay, clearly this person has got these issues. Clearly, they have these issues.’ And the reason I don’t want to share that is just sort of embarrassing. It feels vulnerable,” explained the Good Will Hunting writer-actor.

Affleck also touched on why he chose to be involved in the 2024 documentary about their marriage, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.

“Part of it was, ‘Okay, if I’m going to participate in this, I want to try to do it in an honest way and in a way that’s interesting.’ Because I thought it was an interesting examination,” he said.

Affleck praised Lopez, 55, as someone who has “handled celebrity more adeptly and more adroitly than I have,” explaining, “My temperament is to be a little bit more reserved and private than hers.”

Affleck told GQ that he believes “it’s important to say” that the documentary “wasn’t the cause of some major fracture” in his relationship with Lopez.

“It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, ‘Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had,’ ” the Air actor-director added.

And while he understands “wanting to divine or explore the kind of differences in perspective that we have in terms of how a person feels comfortable approaching the line between public and private life,” Affleck has “nothing but respect” for his ex.

“There’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something,” he continued. “But honestly … the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting.”