Jennifer Lopez has no regrets about getting divorced from Ben Affleck.
In fact, Lopez, 56, called the 2024 split “the best thing that ever happened to me” in new interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”
The “Let’s Get Loud” singer spoke about Affleck, 53, while promoting her upcoming musical movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which he produced.
“It was tough. It was a really tough time,” she said of filming the project last year while dealing with the turmoil in her personal life.
“It was hard not to think about stuff. It was the best and the worst of times, in a way,” Lopez continued. “Every moment on set, every moment I was doing this role, I was so happy, and then it was like, back home, it was not great. It was just like, how do I reconcile this? But you get through it.”
Lopez added: “Honestly, I have to say it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because it changed me… it didn’t change me, it helped me grow in a way that I needed to grow. Become more self-aware. I’m a different person now than I was last year, I think.”
The “Unstoppable” actress, who finalized her divorce from Affleck in January, said that this past summer was “probably the best summer I ever had.”
“I had so much fun. I’m able to enjoy things more,” she shared. “The joy is in living and these moments and really embracing life and everything that it brings to you for the lessons it brings and then for all the triumphs it brings. And the hard times are the lessons, and you have to understand that.”
“And once you do, everything becomes a little bit lighter and you can really, really fly,” the mom of two added. “If that hadn’t have happened, I wouldn’t understand that.”
Lopez also admitted that she wouldn’t have “Kiss of the Spider Woman” if it wasn’t for Affleck.
“The movie wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for him and Artists Equity,” she said. “And I will always give him that credit.”
“They financed it. I told him this was the role I was born to play and I wanted to do it, and he was like, ‘Okay.’ And he helped make it happen,” Lopez recalled.
Directed by Bill Condon, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is adapted from the Tony Award-winning musical, which is based on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel.
In the film, “Andor” actor Diego Luna plays a political prisoner during Argentina’s civil war whose cellmate (played by newcomer Tonatiuh Elizarraraz) recounts an old movie starring his favorite classic screen actress, Ingrid Luna (Lopez).
Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck in Aug. 2024 after two years of marriage.
A source told People at the time that Lopez “did spend a lot of time making sure Ben was happy and had everything he needed,” but Affleck had “erratic mood swings,” which allegedly contributed to their split.
Last October, Lopez told Interview Magazine she’s grateful for the lessons that the divorce taught her.
“That doesn’t mean it didn’t almost take me out for good. It almost did,” she said. “But now, on the other side of it, I think to myself, ‘F–k, that is exactly what I needed. Thank you, God. I’m sorry it took me so long. I’m sorry that you had to do this to me so many times.’”
Affleck, for his part, stated in April that the exes are on good terms.
“For the record, Jennifer Lopez is spectacular, great to my kids, great ongoing relationship with them,” he said the “Accountant 2” premiere. “I love her kids. They’re wonderful. She’s [an] enormously important, tremendous person of a lot of integrity who I adore and am grateful to.”
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” will be released in theaters on Oct. 10
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
