LOS ANGELES: After a relationship that spanned two decades, two engagements, two weddings and headlines too numerous to count, Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.

The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles brought to an apparent end a celebrity coupling - or at least the second installment of it - that dazzled from the very heights of the pop culture firmament and emblazoned countless tabloid covers. The pair became known, even before such power-couple portmanteaus were ubiquitous, as “Bennifer.” Court records showed Lopez filed the petition Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The news was first reported by the TMZ website. TMZ reported further that Lopez listed the date of separation as April 26, 2024. It added that she did not mention any prenuptial agreement. After meeting, falling in love and getting engaged in the early 2000s - and starring together in 2003’s infamous “Gigli” and 2004’s “Jersey Girl” - the couple parted ways, blaming in part the pressure of the public eye.

But to the delight of many and perhaps the skepticism of others, they reunited two decades later and married - twice - in 2022. “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” wrote Lopez, announcing their first, quickie Las Vegas wedding that July, and signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck. “Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12:30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with,” she wrote in her newsletter. The couple had flown to Las Vegas, lined up with their license with four other couples and were wed just after midnight at A Little White Wedding Chapel, where Lopez said a Bluetooth speaker played their brief march down the aisle. She called it the best night of the couple’s lives. A month later, they had a much grander wedding at Affleck’s house in Georgia, in front of friends and family. Both of them had been previously married. Affleck, 52, married Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children, in 2005. They divorced in 2018. Lopez, 55, had been married three times before. She was briefly married to Ojani Noa from 1997-1998 and to Cris Judd from 2001-2003. She and singer Marc Anthony were married for a decade, having wed in 2004, and share 14-year-old twins. She started dating former baseball player Alex Rodriguez in 2017, but the couple called off their engagement in 2021. All along, it had been Lopez who was more vocal in describing her and Affleck’s journey. When asked earlier this year whether she was harder on herself because her relationships had been so high-profile, Lopez agreed. “Oh yeah. 100%.

It’s made me doubt myself and really feel bad about myself at times. Made me feel like I wanted to quit at times. But at the end of the day, I feel like you kind of have to do this thing where you learn how to navigate it,” she told The Associated Press.