PEOPLE
It's Splitsville for "Bennifer": Sources Close to
2003's
Most Over-Publicized Couple Report a Break-Up
2003 RAZZIE front-runners for Worst Screen Couple Ben
Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who just days ago were
planning their weekend wedding, have split up, sources close to
the couple tell PEOPLE. The break-up comes in the wake of
their decision Wednesday to postpone their Sunday wedding in
Montecito, Calif., before as many as 400 guests. The couple
blamed the delay on excessive media attention surrounding the
event, but reports persisted that Affleck was having second
thoughts about the nuptials. A PEOPLE source says it was
Affleck who initiated the split.
While it was unclear whether the separation was permanent, Lopez
was "devastated," according to one friend. The star was
in tears, sources said, on Wednesday as she called guests telling
them of the wedding's postponement. Lopez, accompanied by friends
and a bodyguard, went for a very public jog and swim -- at one
point changing into a bathing suit behind a phalanx of
towel-bearing guards -- Saturday afternoon along Miami's South
Beach, not far from her 11-bedroom house in Miami Beach, where
she flew solo on Friday from Los Angeles. Affleck was believed to
still be in Los Angeles, though some reports had him heading to
Las Vegas for Saturday night's Shane Mosely-Oscar De La Hoya
fight.
The split caps a tumultuous summer for the couple, whose romance
became public in July 2002 just days after she divorced Cris
Judd. They have endured brutal reviews for their performances
in the film "GIGLI," which appears poised to sweep next
spring's 24th Annual RAZZIE Awards. While tabloid reports
have accused Affleck of misbehaving with strippers during a
late-night visit to a Vancouver nightclub (reports he vehemently
denied) Lopez publicly stuck by her fiancee (" for me, it
wasn't an issue," she told W Magazine), and plans
continued apace for their wedding -- his first, her third.
Ken Sunshine, Affleck's spokesman, said he had no
knowledge of a split. Lopez' spokesman Dan Klores said he
believed the couple was still together, but had not spoken to
Lopez in several days. Both spokes-persons declined to comment on
the couple's possibly being reunited as RAZZIE contenders when
2003's Worst Achievements in Film nominations are unveiled next
January 26.
During their time together, the pair -- who met on the set of the
godawful "GIGLI" -- generated worldwide attention,
costarring in a sexy music video for her song "Jenny from
the Block" and purchasing each other obnoxiously extravagant
gifts, including a Rolls-Royce, a Harry Winston bracelet of white
and yellow diamonds and 6.1 carat pink diamond solitaire Affleck
gave Lopez as an engagement ring. Nevertheless, they thought of
themselves as working-class kids -- she from the Bronx, he from
Boston -- who shared similar values. As a teetotaler, Lopez was
also seen as healthy for Affleck, who is a recovering alcoholic.
The couple will be together again: on screen in their second
costarring vehicle, " Jersey Girl," which is set for
release next year, and probably among those nominated for RAZZIES
as 2003's Berry Worst.
Original Text (c) 2003, PEOPLE Magazine.
