Breaking up is never easy — but when young children are involved, the pain can feel unbearable.

Now, Jennifer Lopez is finally revealing the raw truth behind her highly publicized divorce from Ben Affleck.

In an emotional new interview, she opens up about the heart-wrenching moments she shared with her twin children, Emme and Max, as she fought to keep their world from falling apart.

”I had a really tough year”

One of the biggest celebrity events of 2024 was the shocking divorce between singer Jennifer Lopez, 55, and actor Ben Affleck, 52. Despite long-standing rumors of a rift between the Hollywood power couple, the news hit like a bombshell in August 2024.

Lopez officially listed their separation date as April 26, 2024. However, both she and Affleck have remained tight-lipped about the specifics of their relationship in recent months.

Lopez filed for divorce with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing ”irreconcilable differences.”

Both Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have kept a relatively low profile, not speaking openly about their tumultuous divorce. However, JLo is now breaking her silence in a new interview with Spanish publication El País.

”I had a really tough year. Unexpected things happened. And so, I read a lot of books. I did a lot of self-introspection,” she said and continued:

”I did meditation. I prayed a lot. I wanted to improve my relationship with God. I wanted to kind of really solidify the family unit that is me and my two children, my twins.”

Talked to her twins

Jennifer Lopez has revealed how she discussed her breakup from Ben Affleck with her twins, Emme and Max, whom she welcomed with ex-husband Marc Anthony in February 2008.

She shared, “I said, ‘I promise you, this is a difficult time, but you’re going to see that I’ll come out the other side stronger and better.’ I promised them that and I did it.
“And they feel it now. That gives me a great sense of peace in my life.”

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Since the divorce, Lopez has focused on improving her own wellbeing as well as her family’s. She continued in her El País interview:

”I read a lot of books on childhood, marriage, relationships, different styles of love, the brain, science … And over the years, I’ve done individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy. I’ve had everything, I’m always kind of searching.”

”I think it’s all about learning about yourself. It’s all about knowing yourself. You have to be ready for that. And you have to want it. And, even when you want it, it’s hard to change certain things. But you can.”

Ben’s admission

Despite the difficulty of divorce, Lopez is now focusing on the positives.

”Everybody goes through hard times in their life. And it’s what you do in those moments that really does define you,” the singer added.

”Not the relationship, not the man: what defines you is what you’re doing with the experiences that you’re faced with. I take those experiences — whether they’re good or bad — and I bind them.”

Affleck previously admitted feeling ‘embarrassed’ about opening up about the issues he and Lopez were facing, describing it as something that ”feels vulnerable.”

“Yeah, there’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue. The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’, well, there is no: ‘This is what happened’,” he said.

“It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do. And as you get older, this is true for me, I assume it’s true for most people, there is no ‘So-and-so did this’ or ‘This was the big event’.

Ready do date

Apparently, Ben Affleck might be back on the hunt for a new girlfriend — at least if we are to believe what a source exclusively tells In Touch, revealing that the A-lister has been expressing his post-divorce loneliness to friends and confiding that he’d like to settle down and have kids again.

”No matter what Ben says, the fact is he is most happy when he’s in a long-term relationship with somebody he respects and sees as an equal,” says a longtime pal of The Accountant star, 52.

”He’s already had that a handful of times in his life, and he’s determined to find another relationship like that again, and have more kids if he can.”

According to Page Six, it seems the same goes for Jennifer Lopez.

”Jennifer is ready to put herself out there again and she hasn’t given up on finding love,” a source revealed. ”Her friends have encouraged her to date and she’s definitely open to meeting someone new.”