Jennifer Lopez Files for Divorce from Ben Affleck, No Prenup | TMZ Live
Jennifer Lopez has done what seemed inevitable -- she's filed for divorce from Ben Affleck ... TMZ has learned, but there are major twists, including the symbolism of when she finally decided to do it.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00So there is a huge story, which we just broke.
00:03Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.
00:08It has actually happened.
00:10We have been talking about this.
00:11We knew that it was in the works,
00:13but there were some twists late in the game
00:18here when she filed the divorce documents here in Los Angeles
00:23on Tuesday afternoon.
00:26And it is significant that she filed
00:29and this was not a joint filing,
00:32which is the way we thought this was going to go down,
00:35which I'll explain why we thought that in a moment.
00:37But from the filing, we can tell you this,
00:40and this I think is going to surprise a lot of people.
00:43There's no prenup.
00:45They don't have a prenup.
00:46I'm shocked.
00:46Incredibly wealthy people who were very famous
00:49when they got married.
00:51Yes, and remember, they got married just two years ago.
00:55And the date of Jennifer filing this
00:58is also pretty significant, I think,
01:01because today, August 20th,
01:04is actually the second anniversary,
01:06not of their marriage, but of the wedding ceremony
01:10that they held in Georgia,
01:12which remember when they had this big lavish ceremony
01:16in Georgia, they were already legally married.
01:18That happened on July 16th in 2022.
01:21She could have done it yesterday, Charles.
01:22She could have done it tomorrow.
01:24It does seem significant that she filed it today.
01:28And by the way, also in the documents,
01:31she lists the date of separation as April 26th of this year.
01:35Wow.
01:36So we've been saying all along that the signs were here.
01:39We knew that they were trying to work out a settlement,
01:42and all the signs were there.
01:44I mean, he moved out of the house of their marital home.
01:47Right, after they looked at how many,
01:49dozens and dozens of properties.
01:50Right, so they bought that house in Beverly Hills,
01:55a $60 million home.
01:56Yeah.
01:57And then he moved out, he was in a rental,
02:00then he bought his own home in Brentwood.
02:04Right, Jennifer was simultaneously
02:05looking for a place herself.
02:06She is still looking for her own place,
02:08and they are still trying to sell
02:10the Beverly Hills mansion.
02:11Right, I don't know what it is, Charles,
02:13and people were like, they're gonna get back together.
02:16This is not headed for divorce for some reason.
02:18I think people wanted it, but.
02:20I think people, that was a lot of wishful thinking,
02:22but that April 26th date is pretty significant
02:24because it's a little over a week before the Met Gala,
02:26and if you remember, she went to the Met Gala without him,
02:29and that was a big deal at the time.
02:31People were starting to hear the rumblings
02:33of maybe some distress in the marriage,
02:35and that was her list, the separation date,
02:37at just around a week before then.
02:39Yeah, and at the time when everyone asked
02:41why Ben wasn't there, both of their teams said
02:44it was because he was working on a movie.
02:47That might have been technically true,
02:49but clearly we know now, she says herself in the documents,
02:53April 26th was the date of the separation.
02:55So what was the delay here?
02:58And we can't say why exactly Jennifer filed today.
03:03Like we said, the date, I think, is significant,
03:05but they have been, and we know this from sources,
03:08that they have been trying to work out a settlement,
03:11and those negotiations, those conversations were ongoing,
03:16and they are still ongoing,
03:18yet she went ahead and filed.
03:21Why would she do that?
03:24Does that indicate that they're not making progress?
03:26Well, what we've heard about these negotiations
03:29is that they have gotten very contentious at times,
03:33so much so that at times, there were times
03:36that they weren't even speaking to each other.
03:38Don't know if that's the case right now at this moment,
03:42but it has been contentious,
03:44and obviously, Jennifer decided it was time
03:48to just file the divorce,
03:50because originally, the plan was trying
03:52to reach a settlement, and then filing.
03:54It wouldn't seem that complicated, right, Charles?
03:55I mean, I know they've got the $60 million asset,
03:57obviously, but they don't have much.
03:59Right, but there's not much that they,
04:01they weren't together that long.
04:02No, no, I think Mike has a point here.
04:04Look, this is a marriage that's only around two years long.
04:07They were already incredibly wealthy, both of them,
04:10and those are all premarital assets.
04:11You're talking about two years.
04:12They haven't been idle.
04:14He starred in the movie, Air.
04:15He's had a bunch of projects that he's producing.
04:17They've each had a handful of projects, right?
04:20But really, the bulk of their earnings
04:22have been before they formally got married.
04:24But Derek, as the attorney, during these two years,
04:29everything that they earned is community property,
04:31so they've gotta split that, right?
04:33No, that's absolutely correct.
04:34If you don't have a prenup, the presumption is
04:36that what you earn during the course of the marriage,
04:38those two years, is community property
04:39that has to be divided, but what I'm saying is,
04:41the premarital stuff, before they got married,
04:43they had vast assets, both of them.
04:45There wasn't a real huge disparity in their earnings.
04:47That's where you really see prenups,
04:49when a billionaire marries a pauper or something like that.
04:51That's not what this marriage was.
04:53Molly from New York, and I think that, look,
04:57J.Lo, it's kind of known that she doesn't
04:59like anyone as much as herself, which is okay.
05:02You know what?
05:03It's very interesting, the fact that there was no prenup.
05:05Like, why didn't they do that?
05:06Aren't you, like, you're smart people,
05:09you know what I mean?
05:09So it's very interesting.
05:11I'll tell you why I think they're smart people,
05:13but they're also people who are very much in love,
05:16and there's the whole love story
05:17of they finally came back together 20 years later.
05:20You know, you think it's gonna be forever,
05:21and then turns out it isn't.