J. Lo's One 'Condition' For Ex Marc Anthony's Wedding

Believe it or not, according to Lopez’ memoir True Love, the first words Anthony ever said to her were, “One day you're going to be my wife.” This marriage prophecy would have to wait a while, though, as the path to this future would be long and winding. You see, even though they dated casually in 1998, both wound up with other people in the following years. 

Anthony wed Dayanara Torres — a former Miss Universe — in 2000, and they had two sons, Christian and Ryan. Sadly, that marriage was effectively over by 2002 when the couple split, but the divorce wasn’t finalized until 2004. That was the same year Lopez split from Hollywood heartthrob Ben Affleck, after dramatically cancelling their wedding only hours before the ceremony was due to get underway. 

Throw in another marriage to dancer Cris Judd — which lasted from 2001 to 2003 — and Lopez must’ve felt her love life was cursed somehow. However, after she and Affleck went their separate ways, Anthony came back into her life, and they started dating again on the down-low. Pretty quickly, though, rumors began circulating that another wedding was in the cards — sooner rather than later.

Lopez wrote in True Love, “All the heartache and pain of my recent breakup couldn't have been for nothing, could it? Maybe I had to go through the bad so I could end up with the person I was meant to be with all along.” It certainly seemed this was the case when she and Anthony walked down the aisle at her palatial Beverly Hills pad — and after just six months of dating!

The wedding was organized completely in secret — even from Lopez’ family, who thought they were simply coming over for a normal afternoon get-together! Talk about a surprise! The loved-up J. Lo told People magazine, “When you find that person who doesn't run when things get hard — I think that's where Marc proved to me that he was more of a man than anything I had experienced.” 

Fast forward four years, and on February 22, 2008 the couple announced in People magazine that Lopez had given birth to twins. The following week saw them reveal the babies’ names – Max and Emme. The little bundles of joy were Lopez’ first children, and the fourth and fifth for Anthony. Lopez’ manager Simon Fields confirmed, “Jennifer and Marc are delighted, thrilled and over the moon.”

Unfortunately for Lopez and Anthony, though, they hadn’t cultivated the forever marriage they’d hoped for. It was announced that the couple were separating in July 2011, but it would take until June 16, 2014 for the divorce to become official. At the time, a source told People, “Marc and Jennifer decided it's best to go their separate ways for the sake of their two kids.”

Lopez wrote about the marriage in True Love. Her words were heartbreakingly bittersweet, but they also attempted to make sense of the heartbreak. She admitted, “Things between Marc and me weren't perfect, of course — our marriage was never the kind to glide along peacefully. From the beginning it was tumultuous, passionate, and explosive, but we also shared many fulfilling and joyful moments.”

“Every marriage has its challenges, but it was about keeping that marriage together, having that family unit, and making the dream come true — whatever the cost,” continued Lopez. “In my family, when I was growing up, divorce was not an option. So, when I married Marc, having already been through the disappointment of two divorces and a broken engagement, I wanted so much for our marriage to be ‘it.’”

Lopez even detailed the moment she and Anthony realized their marriage was over. She wrote, “Marc was in the middle of venting to me about things between us that had been bothering him, and I was sitting there trying to figure out where he was going with it. Then he said it again, ‘I’m not happy. I'm here because we have a family, because we're trying to keep it together. But I'm not happy.’”

“I really thought I had done everything I could — as a wife, as a partner, and as a mother to his children,” continued Lopez. “What sense did it make to keep suppressing my own feelings of what was missing in the relationship? How long did I need to keep trying to make someone happy who was telling me flat-out that he wasn't?”

So, the couple sat down and decided to put all their cards on the table. Lopez revealed she told Anthony, “This is not working. You know it's not working. We're not living like a family, and I don't see how things are going to change. Neither of us is happy, and the kids are wondering what's going on. I think we should move on with our lives.” 

In the years following their divorce, Lopez was very honest when asked about it by the press. In 2016 she told W magazine, “When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness. It wasn’t the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment, and anger.” Thankfully, she didn’t let herself succumb to these dark emotions.

“But Marc is the father of my children, and that’s never going away,” continued Lopez. “So, I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do.” Then, she dropped quite the bombshell by saying, “I hung in there for seven years. I knew very quickly that it wasn’t the right thing.” Ouch.

Lopez also once told Oprah Winfrey, “Once I got divorced, I had to re-examine my whole life…I had kids when I was 38, because I never wanted to not be with the person I was with and had kids with. I just felt like, when we got divorced, it was the lowest time of my life. I felt like I had failed miserably and that I wasn’t going to give my kids what they needed.” 

By the time 2017 rolled around, though, things were a lot brighter. Lopez appeared on The View and gushed, “Marc and I are good how we are right now. There's a reason we're not together, but we're great friends and we're parents together.” But what had prompted this softening of her view? She revealed, “We're even working on a Spanish album together! That has been even better for us.” 

The Marry Me star elaborated on this working relationship on Live with Kelly and Ryan. She revealed, “We are like best friends. We are making an album now. At first I was like, we're good with the kids, but if we start working together, are we going to start going at each other again? But it's been awesome. Honestly, I think it's even helped our relationship and it's made things even better.”

During this period, Lopez also told Spotify, “It actually kind of repaired certain parts of our relationship that had been fractured from our marriage and our divorce and it kind of made us friends again. Like, because when we first started working together it’s how we met, we met working. And so, we remembered that like, oh right, we connect on this level of music.”

When asked if there was a chance she and Anthony would ever get back together, though, Lopez firmly answered, “No. We’re really good the way we are. We’re always going to be great friends. I’m always going to be there for him; he’s always going to be there for me. We share something very special in the kids and we know that. We’re there for them and that’s the main thing.”

Indeed, J. Lo’s comments make it very obvious that the twins are absolutely central to she and Anthony’s continued relationship. In 2022 an anonymous source told Hollywood Life, “One of the reasons Jen and Marc’s co-parenting relationship works so well is because they keep their conversations all about the kids. The only thing that matters to her is that anybody he’s with is good to Max and Emme.” 

Lopez’ comfort with this arrangement was put to the test when Anthony married his third wife Shannon De Lima in November 2014. Once again, though, within two years the marriage had dissolved, and divorce was finalized on February 13, 2017. It would take another five years for Anthony to find his fourth wife Nadia Ferreira — a one-time Miss Universe Paraguay 31 years his junior!

The couple announced their romance in March 2022 and their engagement was made Instagram official only a couple of months later! At the Latin Grammy Awards in November 2022, Anthony won Best Salsa Album and gave a shout out to his new love in his speech. He gushed, “To start, Nadia, thank you for being with me and giving me your best and making me the happiest man.”

But how did Lopez feel about Anthony’s new relationship? Well, in May 2022 an anonymous source told Hollywood Life, “Jen stopped having an opinion about Marc’s romantic life a long time ago. It’s been so many years since they broke up at this point and they’ve both moved on with other people.” She reportedly even sent congratulatory flowers to the new couple!

Anthony reportedly has a very similar outlook when it comes to Lopez’ love life. When she got back together with Affleck in 2021, a source close to Anthony told Hollywood Life, “Marc just wants Jennifer to be happy. He doesn’t care who she is with or where she is living. He’s fine with her spending more time in L.A. and they’ll have an arrangement for the kids that works.”

Having said all this, Lopez mustn’t have been 100 percent copacetic with Anthony and Ferreira’s relationship — at least in how it related to her children. A source told Marca she was slightly concerned about Ferreira becoming stepmother to her kids, mostly because she doesn’t know her very well and isn’t willing to leave them with just anybody. Would Ferreira be able to prove herself as a stepmom?

Well, the short answer to that question is – “unclear.” You see, Anthony and Ferreira tied the knot on January 28, 2023 in Miami and the lavish ceremony was attended by Marc’s sons Christian and Ryan, as well as Alex, one of two kids from his relationship with Debbie Rosado, a police officer. Unfortunately, Emme and Max weren’t there, and neither was Lopez. 

Fans wondered if this meant J. Lo didn’t give her blessing to the union, and this was leant some credence by the Marca article. You see, according to its unnamed source, Lopez didn’t take the news of Anthony’s latest engagement particularly well. Why? Because she — somewhat ironically, it must be said — thought six months of dating wasn’t long enough for him to commit to another marriage!

One other thing - how did people know Lopez and the twins didn’t go to the wedding? Well, Lopez and Emme were pictured going to the cinema in Los Angeles, that’s how! Paparazzi snapped the two attending a movie with Affleck, his son Samuel and daughter Seraphina. The status of Max was unknown, to be fair — he wasn’t pictured in L.A., but also wasn’t definitively placed at his dad’s wedding either. 

Regardless of whether Lopez felt her request was met by Anthony and Ferreira, one thing is certain — she’s super happy with Affleck in their new blended family. At the red carpet premiere of new movie Shotgun Wedding, she told People magazine, “It’s going really, really well. It’s amazing, we have five beautiful, beautiful children, blessings…It’s a beautiful night, that’s all I can say.” Their journey to happiness wasn't exactly smooth, though.

On the couple's wedding day in July of 2022, they must have felt as if the day was 20 years in the making — and it was! Three months before they arrived at the chapel in Las Vegas, Affleck did something J. Lo never saw coming: he got down on one knee...for the second time. Affleck popped the question back in April 2022 in what has to be one of the most romantic proposals ever! 

“While at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed,” Jennifer told fans in an issue of her OnTheJ.Lo web newsletter. “I… just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again. I was quite literally speechless and he said, ‘Is that a yes?’ I said, ‘YES of course that’s a YES.’” 

Lopez continued, "I was smiling so big and tears were coming down my face, feeling so incredibly happy and whole. It was nothing fancy at all, but it was the most romantic thing I could’ve ever imagined… just a quiet Saturday night at home, two people promising to always be there for each other." And the couple’s wedding would echo the same intimate sentiments.

J.Lo’s engagement ring was a whopping 8.5-carat diamond ring in a light shade of green — very different from the pink one Affleck had originally given her some 20 years before. Lopez posted a picture of herself wearing the ring on her newsletter to announce the news. But just three months down the line, she’d be swapping that big rock for her wedding band.

In what may have been a spur-of-the-moment decision, Jen and Ben — or Bennifer — hopped on a plane to Las Vegas to say their “I dos.” In her newsletter to fans, J.Lo wrote, “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient. Exactly what we wanted… [We] stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world.”

The couple then headed to the Little White Wedding Chapel, which has seen its fair share of celebrity weddings. According to J.Lo, it was pushing midnight by the time she and Affleck made it there. But the officiators kept the doors open a little longer than usual so the marriage could go ahead and the newlyweds could get photos in the pink Cadillac parked in the Love Tunnel. 

All couples who get married at the Little White Wedding Chapel have the option of saying their vows in front of someone very special — Elvis. An impersonator, of course — not the real deal. But it turns out Bennifer got to the chapel after The King’s bedtime. “If we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed,” J.Lo told fans in her newsletter. 

As is the case with many star-studded weddings, fans were very intrigued to see what both Affleck and J.Lo wore on their big day — or night, we should say. The singer actually had two outfits for the occasion. The first was a cute yet classic high-neck A-line dress, and it was particularly sentimental for the star.

It was, it seems, J.Lo’s “something old.” She’d worn it in a film she’d starred in ages ago. “I’ve had this dress for so many years,” she told her stylist Chris Appleton in an Instagram video. “And I’ve just been saving it, saving it, saving it, and now I’m wearing it on my wedding day.” Her big, bouncy curls and princess-like makeup finished off the look and looked just as amazing with the star’s second dress…

At the chapel, J.Lo changed into a more traditional bridal look — a figure-hugging, lace-sleeved gown with a veil to match. She looked stunning — but then again, J.Lo could have worn a towel down the aisle and still looked a million dollars. Affleck’s outfit, as you probably guessed, was a little more understated.

While promising to take J.Lo to have and to hold, Affleck wore a white tux he already owned. And he didn’t have the luxury of a stylist like his wife-to-be. Instead, the actor got ready in the men’s room at the chapel! Affleck took a video to document this part of the day, showing fans the small bathroom with his suit bag and rucksack balanced on the sink.

And J.Lo wasn’t exactly in a luxury hotel room or anything, either. She was a few doors away in the venue’s break room for staff. The star later thanked the chapel for being so flexible and for letting them use those rooms to freshen up. It all helped the couple to have what they described as “the best possible wedding we could have imagined.”

“When love is real,” J.Lo said in her newsletter, “the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another. We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives.” But there are no doubt a few fans who were surprised at the couple’s choice of wedding.

Between them, Bennifer are worth an estimated $550 million. So fans may have expected them to go all out, planning the sort of no-expenses-spared to-do lots of stars have these days. But J.Lo confirmed that this was the wedding the pair had always wanted — even all those years ago when they first got together.

J.Lo described the wedding as “one we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.” And you need only look at the photos to see happiness radiating off the newlyweds. That post-wedding glow was visible in J.Lo’s first Instagram post after the event as well.

In it, the new Mrs. Affleck is in bed, tucked under the covers wearing a big smile and clutching her phone in her left hand, inviting fans to spot what’s different about her ring finger. Gone is the chunky green diamond, and in its place sits a simple, understated wedding band. The singer captioned the photo “Sadie!” as a reference to “Sadie, Sadie, married lady” from Funny Girl.  

Summing up her big day in the newsletter, J.Lo wrote, “So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives.” But the singer’s newsletter article isn’t all about her. It’s clear from her tone she’s rallying her fans, reaching out to any singletons and passing on her hope and optimism about finding love later in life.

J.Lo wrote, “Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12:30 a.m. in the Tunnel of Love drive-through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with. Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things — and worth waiting for.” 

To fans, J.Lo will always be Jenny from the Block, but as is tradition, the star is said to have taken Affleck as her new surname. This makes her new full name Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck. And, funnily enough, it’s a change she opened up about back when she was engaged to Affleck the first time around.

In a 2003 episode of Ben & Jen: A Dateline Special, Lopez told Pat O’Brien, “I think I’m going to stay with Jennifer Lopez, but my name will be Jennifer Affleck, obviously.” She then joked about her new nickname J-Aff, saying, “it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.” Little did she know back then how long and windy the road would be before she actually became Mrs. Affleck!

After J.Lo and Affleck called off their first engagement, Lopez married Marc Anthony. They were together ten years, from 2004 to 2014. On their own, they were both famous musicians, but together they were the definition of a power couple. Then, as they welcomed twins into the world, it seemed they had found a happily ever after. But as is the case with every marriage, the pair experienced some rocky moments ...

Lopez and Anthony's playful banter was on full display when they hosted the reality show, ¡Q'Viva! The Chosen. Well, until it all took a slightly uncomfortable turn. Anthony kept a very close eye on one of the female dancers as they left, in full view of his wife. He had to be doing it as a joke, right? The gossip that circulated about Anthony would say otherwise.

Even while rumors of infidelity swirled, though, it appeared as if their love was meant to last. But one day, Lopez battled an anxiety attack and was struck by an unpleasant revelation. She'd made the difficult decision to end her marriage with Anthony, even though it was one of the hardest moments of her life.

Then, several years after that divorce was finalized, Lopez appeared on The View and discussed where her relationship with Anthony stands today. "There’s a reason we’re not together, but we’re great friends and we’re parents together. We’re even working on a Spanish album together. That has been even better for us," she said. But though the dust had settled, their split wasn't without complications.

In her book True Love, Lopez claimed that her young son had worried about how much she would remain in her children's lives. Lopez comforted her son, however, making sure her kids knew she wasn't leaving them. That moment allowed her to build a more healthy relationship with her children, too. But how was Anthony handling the divorce?

Thankfully, Anthony has the utmost respect for Lopez as both a mother and an artist. "Before she even brings an idea up, she has visualized it a thousand times," Anthony told InStyle. "And if anyone says it might not be the greatest idea, she’ll say, 'You just don’t see it yet.'" He also said that Lopez taught him a lot. Oh, and there's another thing he won't ever forget about her, too.

Basically, Anthony remains in awe of Lopez's incredible work ethic. If there was a single person he can count on to be the "first one in the room and the last to leave," that's Lopez. It seems their divorce healed their relationship — in the platonic sense, at least. After Anthony came Alex Rodriguez and a relationship that seemed to put Bennifer in the rear-view mirror for good.

Known as both "J. Rod" and "A. Lo," the pair seemed like they were living out a fairytale. And news of their engagement probably came as no surprise to anyone tracking their relationship. That happy moment was followed by some disturbing developments, however.

For one, there were rumors that A. Lo/J. Rod were on the rocks. Insiders insisted, though, that the pair had not called it quits and that their engagement was still on. Then, while fans wondered when the big day would finally arrive, a photo on Lopez's Instagram changed the game.

In the snap, Lopez's engagement ring was nowhere to be found. Then, after fan speculation ran wild, the two lovers finally revealed what the photo might have hinted: the engagement was off. But while this may have been a tragic bump in the road for poor Jenny, she wouldn't be unlucky in love for long.

In 2021 Bennifer 2.0 was back and in full swing! When papped photos first started appearing of the iconic duo, fans thought it was too good to be true. But it's not! It seems J-Lo and Ben Affleck are having the time of their lives both flaunting for the cameras and simply enjoying each other's company. But that doesn't mean the pair didn't have any concerns about getting back together.

Affleck discussed his “cross to bear” while talking with Howard Stern in 2021, and it caused shockwaves across the entire internet. Some people were appalled at what he said, but one thing was for certain: it put Bennifer back in the public consciousness in a way it hadn’t been since the ’00s. 

Stern said to Affleck, “The relationship now, I see you’re with Jennifer. That even brings more attention to you. You’ve been through the scene when you’re constantly in the tabloids. Was there hesitation on your part, because now you’re a dad? Was there hesitation on your part to say, you know, ‘I can’t go through this again?’”

And there had indeed been hesitation on Affleck’s part, because of the previous media intrusion and the potential effect a new relationship might have on his kids. Affleck said, “It crossed my mind for sure. My responsibility to my children is the highest responsibility. I don’t want to do anything that is painful or destructive to them if I can help it.”

All through the interview, Affleck was adamant that he had never wanted to hurt his children’s feelings in any way, no matter who he was involved with romantically. He described how even once his relationship with Garner had broken down, they had remained married for the sake of the kids and “did [their] best” despite everything.

And those comments about “going through this again” could have also perhaps been taken in an unflattering way. Yet, luckily, it didn’t seem to have any effect at all on how Lopez felt about Affleck. She spoke to People magazine in February 2022 about how “lucky and happy and proud” she was to be with him. 

Lopez told the magazine, “I just feel very happy and lucky to be in a relationship that’s happy and loving, and I want to do everything I can to protect that and keep it safe. It deserves that, it really does.” But she did have a lot to say about the ways the paparazzi had impacted their lives the first time around.

According to Lopez, both she and Affleck “had a little bit of fear” about getting back together in the public eye. She remembered, “Before we kind of put [our relationship] out there, and we were naïve and it got a little trampled.” But this second time around, she felt as though things had changed.

Lopez told People, “We both were like, ‘Wow, we’re so happy and we don’t want any of that to come into play again.’ We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience, we’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things. We’re so protective because it is such a beautiful time for all of us.”

And Lopez absolutely sung the praises of Affleck as well. She said, “I’m so proud of him. I’m so proud of the man he’s become that I’ve watched from afar… To see the person, the human being, the man that he is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is — he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be.” May their happiness continue for a long time!