Jennifer Lopez saw Ben Affleck as ‘the one that got away’ before reunion

Jennifer Lopez kept a special place in her heart for Ben Affleck after their 2004 split — which made taking him back 17 years later an easy decision, a source told Page Six.

“Jennifer always saw Ben as the one that got away,” the source said. “She was crushed after they broke up, though she felt at the time that she had no other choice but to call off their engagement.”

Lopez, 51, and Affleck, 48, met in 2001 on the set of their box-office bomb “Gigli.” They started dating soon after and got engaged in 2002. However, the power couple known as Bennifer postponed their 2003 wedding at the eleventh hour and separated the next year.

“As hot and heavy as their relationship was, they were on very different paths at the end of it,” the source tells us. “Jennifer was ready to settle down and have kids, but Ben wasn’t keen on giving up his bachelor lifestyle just yet. In the end, she got tired of waiting for him to come around — even though it broke her heart to end things.”

Lopez went on to call their split her “first real heartbreak” and credited her future husband, Marc Anthony, with helping her believe in love again.

“Marc came back into my life three days after I should have been at the altar saying ‘I do’ to another man,” she wrote in her 2014 book, “True Love,” of the Latin singer, to whom she had previously been linked in the late 1990s.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck attend the premiere of her film "Maid in Manhattan" in New York on December 8, 2002.
Lopez and Affleck (seen here in 2002) are giving their relationship another try nearly two decades later.
AFP via Getty Images

Lopez wed Anthony, now 52, in 2004, while Affleck tied the knot with Jennifer Garner in 2005. Both marriages produced children — twins Max and Emme, 13, for J.Lo; Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9, for the “Argo” director — before ending in divorce.

In April, Page Six broke the news that Lopez and Affleck had started hanging out again in Los Angeles after she called off her two-year engagement to Alex Rodriguez.

The “Let’s Get Loud” singer and the Oscar winner then took trips to Montana and Miami, where they were regularly photographed hanging out on the balcony of a rental home.

Since returning to California, the stars have left no doubt about their on-again romance, sealing it with a kiss while out to dinner with Lopez’s family on Sunday.

Reps for Lopez did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.

source: nypost.com