Ben Affleck Was “Taken Aback” That Jennifer Lopez Shared His Private Love Letters to Her for the Making of ‘This Is Me…Now’

Since its inception in the early aughts, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s romance has always been consistent and constant fodder for headline news. That said, perhaps now more than ever—at least as far as being on their terms, rather than the tabloids’—Affleck and Lopez’s love story is front and center as Lopez prepares to release her new album This Is Me…Now (her first album in a decade) and the accompanying film This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, both of which are out Friday. (The couple attended the L.A. premiere last night for the latter.) 

In doing the press rounds for the album and film, Lopez has said in no uncertain terms that it was Affleck who inspired her creatively as she brought the project to life. Page Six reports that Affleck was “taken aback” when she shared with songwriters the private love letters he wrote to her, which sparked content for her forthcoming record.

Per Variety, Lopez invited musicians into their shared home and gave them access to the love letters, which he called “The Greatest Love Story Never Told.” Ironically, Affleck happened to walk in at that very moment and was surprised to see the vulnerable and personal love letters being passed around.

“I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told,” Affleck said. “If you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”

Lopez previously hinted at the existence of the love letters from a teaser for the film released back in November. In it, she holds a letter dated December 24, 2002, which appeared to be from Affleck. “Life’s tough but you’re sweet,” it read. “Thanks for the gift. Hope you like the flowers. You told me you could never have enough. I believe you.” The letter was signed “B.” (Whether that was an actual letter preserved from 2002, a replica, or fabricated entirely for the production, only Affleck and Lopez know.)

Lopez called This Is Me…Now the most honest thing she’s done: “People think they know things about what happened to me along the way—but they really have no idea, and a lot of times they get it so wrong,” she told Vogue in November 2022. “There’s a part of me that was hiding a side of myself from everyone.” 

Now everything—including love letters Affleck probably never thought would see the light of day—appears out on the table. In addition to the dual release of the album and film on Friday, there will be a documentary about This Is Me…Now: A Love Story released on Amazon Prime on February 27.

“I was like, ‘I don’t write, I don’t do this,’” Lopez said, per People. “He [Affleck] was like, ‘You do, you write, you direct, you produce, you choreograph, you do all the things. Start stepping into that, start owning a little bit of who you are.'"