File photo: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend ELLE’s Women in Hollywood Celebration at Nya Studios on Dec. 5, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Originally appeared on E! Online
Ben Affleck is sharing his side of the story.
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Over three months after the "Good Will Hunting" star and Jennifer Lopez finalized their divorce, he addressed the end of their two-year marriage — which followed an engagement in the mid-aughts before a breakup until 2021.
“There’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something,” Affleck explained to GQ in an interview published March 25. “The truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting.”
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And while he acquiesced that he and the "Maid in Manhattan" star had some fundamental differences in their approach to fame, he emphasized of their breakup, “There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue.”
The 52-year-old — who shares kids Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13, with ex Jennifer Garner — also added context to a widely circulated clip from "The Greatest Love Story Never Told," where he briefly compared their different perspectives on celebrity life saying, “You don’t marry a ship captain and say you don’t like water.”
READ: Will Jennifer Lopez Keep Her $5 Million Engagement Ring From Ben Affleck? Here's the Deal…
As he added to GQ, “As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things.”
But while Affleck stood by his previous comments made in the documentary, he noted that his and Lopez's different takes on fame were not what caused their divorce.
“You’ve got to own what you knew going into any relationship,” he continued. “I think it’s important to say that wasn’t the cause of some major fracture. It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, ‘Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had.’”
After opening up on his relationship with the “On The Floor” singer, Affleck expressed that he has no hard feelings toward his ex, particularly when it comes to her desire for a more public life.
“This is somebody I have a lot of respect for,” he explained. “And I get 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.”
He highlighted that when it comes to Lopez’s desire for fame, he doesn’t have “any negativity or judgment or anything regarding that.”
As for what caused their breakup? It isn’t one thing, Affleck noted, and he isn’t going to get into the nitty gritty details any time soon.
“The reason I don’t want to share that is just sort of embarrassing,” he added. “It feels vulnerable.”
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