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The news that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are officially headed for divorce is not a shock, but it is the rare example of a celebrity split that follows a very public declaration of their romance being “the greatest love story never told.” (Literally.) Anyone who’s been through a breakup knows the bittersweet embarrassment of finding relics of a now-over relationship — the birthday cards, the vacation selfies, etcetera. But what Affleck and Lopez created together prior to their separation is awkward on a whole other level.
In February 2024, Lopez launched an exceptionally ambitious combination of projects: A new album and “cinematic original” both entitled This Is Me… Now (the title serving as a callback to This Is Me… Then, her 2002 studio album that was dedicated to Affleck, her then-boyfriend). Shortly after This Is Me… Now came The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the album and film that proves, especially now, almost painfully revelatory about Affleck and Lopez’s relationship.
Longer than This Is Me… Now (the film) by 21 minutes, The Greatest Love Story Never Told features many telling moments that perhaps hint at why the Affleck/Lopez union did not stand the test of time (again). But the biggest one may come early in, as Lopez is explaining the inspiration behind the title of the doc itself: For their first Christmas together as a reunited couple, Affleck took all of their love letters and emails exchanged over the course of their relationship and compiled them into a book of that title.
It’s a really thoughtful gesture, especially given the decades across which said relationship has stretched. Which is why it’s honestly a bit horrifying for the viewer at home to learn that while working on the music for her new album, Lopez showed Affleck’s gift to all of her collaborators so they could look through it for inspiration — something he didn’t find out about until after the fact.
Just think about that: creating a thoughtful gift for your soon-to-be wife, a deeply personal and intimate archive of everything you’ve ever shared, and finding out that other people are flipping through it without your consent looking for song lyrics.
It’s something that the documentary doesn’t question, just leaves out in the open. And it’s not the only uncomfortable moment captured by director Jason Bergh’s cameras. At one point on set, Affleck geeks out over the camera lenses stored in an equipment truck, a sequence that lasts seconds on screen but clearly went on for much longer. “This is your fantasy truck,” Lopez says as he talks about Zeiss and Arri zooms. When he tries to explain one to her, she says, “I don’t care,” with a playful pout. “I know,” is his offhand reply.
Affleck loves looking at those lenses, but otherwise, throughout The Greatest Love Story Never Told he seems exceptionally uneasy — something Lopez full-on acknowledges at one point, confessing, “I don’t think he’s very comfortable with me doing all of this. But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s going to support me in every way he can.”
He’s certainly engaged at various points throughout the film, whether it be in candid footage of them working on the script for This Is Me… Now, or during a series of Lopez talking head interviews that reveal him as the interviewer behind the camera. One of those interviews features another uncomfortable moment, though, as Affleck talks off-screen about how when he “first read the script, it looked like the inciting incident that causes all this pain down the road is our breakup. I thought, ‘Wow, nobody did anything wrong. It was mutual.’ I think for us to move on from that, we have to kind of forgive it, forgive each other. Do you forgive me?”
We don’t see Lopez’s response to the question. Instead, after watching her consider the topic silently for a moment, we cut away to a sequence featuring the iconic Jenifer Lewis filming her appearance as a member of the Zodiacal Council — the Greek chorus offering commentary on Lopez’s romantic struggles throughout This Is Me… Now. Much of the documentary features similar moments of ducking away just before things can get even more personal, which makes you wonder what lingers on the cutting room floor.
There’s a lot of chatter throughout, though, that showcases the ways in which both husband and wife have contextualized their relationship in light of Lopez’s creative endeavors. “It’s the first time she’s done something as an artistic form of expression that was purely for the sake of what she had to express. It was about bringing out things that she felt inside that she just wanted to say,” Affleck says towards the film’s end. “And I don’t really love being in the making-of documentary about my personal life, which is why I’m so relieved that… I’m not really. I was worrying for no reason. The movie wasn’t about me. It was about the ability to love yourself. And that love story is a lot fucking harder to find than Prince Charming.”
Affleck’s not wrong about at least some of that, and that’s hopefully the lesson both of them have taken away from this experience — that loving themselves is what matters most. In the meantime, we’re left with this document of what they once had, which might have been more honest than either of them were prepared to acknowledge at the time.
Sometimes, ending a relationship is like committing a crime — you want to immediately get rid of all the evidence. But right now, at least, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s The Greatest Love Story Never Told is still streaming on Prime Video. (Streaming rights deals can be a lot harder to end than marriages.)
English (US) · 