Second time around celebs

As divorce rumours swirl around Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, new asks the experts how to get the spark back in a broken relationship

- Shelley Spadoni

Is it ever a good idea to go back to your ex? It’s a question many of us have considered, especially when we see high-profile celebrities giving it another go after the end of a seemingly turbulent relationship that looked like it could never be revived.

Take Hollywood stars Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, for example. Fans the world over couldn’t get enough of the pair rekindling their relationship in 2021. It seemed like the most perfect romantic movie – a second chance at love after their 2004 split, which culminated in a glamorous wedding in Georgia, in July 2022.

But rumours have been swirling for some time that all is not well in the Lopez-Affleck camp, with claims the two have been living apart for months, snaps of them without their wedding rings and the fact that they have not been pictured together since June. And when actor Ben, 51, missed his wife’s 55th birthday lunch, the rumour mill went into overdrive.

But despite recent whispers that divorce papers have been drawn up, the pair are said to have been attempting to reignite their spark – and have even reportedly been writing each other love letters, like they did in the early days, in an attempt to save their romance.

Ben has previously admitted he kept all their correspondence while he was married to Jennifer Garner, and collated it all in a book to give to J.Lo when they got back together.

“This is a book Ben gave me on our first Christmas back together,” J.Lo said in her documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told. “It is every letter and every mail that we wrote each other from 20 years ago and today.”

It remains to be seen whether J.Lo and Ben’s love will prove to be enduring, but what makes a couple who couldn’t go the distance the first time round give things another shot? According to Tina Wilson, relationship expert and Wingman founder, people often go back to someone they’ve dated before because they’re looking for “the familiar”.