IF Jennifer Lopez’s ex- husband Ben Affleck wasn’t already running for cover, he should be now.
Tomorrow, the American superstar celebrates her 56th birthday and is, insiders say, preparing to unleash her “scorned woman energy” with a new album inspired by their bitter split.
Jennifer Lopez is celebrating her 56th birthday and is preparing to unleash her ‘scorned woman energy’ with a whole new album[/caption]
J-Lo’s new music is inspired by her bitter split from Ben Affleck last year[/caption]
J-Lo has already hinted at what’s to come after unveiling her brand new track, Wreckage Of You, on stage in Pontevedra, Spain, during her European tour — which alluded to issues in her marriage to Ben, 52.
And on stage at the Lucca Summer Festival in Italy on Monday, she dished out another brutal blow with her cutting new song, Up All Night.
On the track, which has the same name as her concert trek, J-Lo sings: “I’m up all night, dancing on somebody, living my best life. I bet you wish that you were by my side. I got tired of you breaking me down.”
Tellingly, she adds: “Look at me now.”
I made a decision that I wasn’t going to sing all the love songs…I wanted to do songs that were like, ‘Get out of here! I hate you!’
J-Lo
Those close to Jennifer say the cutting comeback tune is a sign of what is to come as she enters the next phase of her life.
“Jennifer has written and recorded enough tracks for a whole new album,” a source explained.
“The material is inspired by what she went through during her relationship with Ben. Wreckage Of You was so specifically about Ben, and Up All Night points to where Jennifer is at in her life right now. This is a whole new era for Jennifer and she isn’t going to be holding back.”
‘I feel naughty’
During her Lucca gig, J-Lo ramped up the sex appeal and boasted about her antics in the bedroom before performing Moments In Love.
She told the audience: “I have to be honest with you, sometimes I get in different moods at night. I don’t know about you but I do, and sometimes I like it hard.”
As the crowd screamed, J-Lo added: “Other days I am feeling a little romantic. You put on candles and soft music. On those days, I like it real slow.
“But there’s other days . . . maybe because it’s a new kind of time for me, maybe because it’s summertime and it’s hot outside, I feel a little more naughty.”
Laughing as the crowd reacted to her words, J-Lo said with a smile: “You ever get that feeling?
“Where you feel like being naughty? On those days, I like it real fast.”
J-Lo, who has 11 shows remaining on her Up All Night tour, also insisted she won’t play her love songs on the road.
In a nod to the changes in her life, she said: “I made a decision when I decided to do these shows that I wasn’t going to sing all the love songs — that I was going to do my anti-love songs.
“I wanted to do the songs that were like, ‘Get out of here! I hate you!’.”
With a megawatt smile and a glint in her eye, she added: “I’m just kidding. No, I’m not . . .”
To mark her special day tomorrow, J-Lo will release another song, aptly named Birthday, which seems to taunt Ben about what he lost when their romance ended.
She sings: “Every day is my birthday, bitch. You ain’t never seen nobody do it like this. You ain’t gettin’ in tonight, you ain’t on the list. Everything I want, I got, I ain’t got a wish.” Ironically, Ben’s birthday is in a few weeks’ time, though it is unlikely he’ll get a card or pressie from J-Lo, who has described her Latin passion as “my scorned woman energy”.
Following the breakdown of their two-year long marriage, Ben has been stoically silent.
The pair go all the way back to 2002, when they first began dating.
Hailed Bennifer, they swiftly got engaged and became the celebrity It couple.
But they split two years later amid rumours Ben couldn’t handle the public scrutiny.
Both moved on — J-Lo married third husband, Marc Anthony, with whom she shares twins Emme and Max, 17.
They split in 2011 and later divorced.
She went on to have romances with back-up dancer Casper Smart and former baseball player Alex Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, Ben found love with his Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner.
They got married in 2005 and had three children — Violet, 19, Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13.
But cracks appeared as Ben began drinking heavily — he later went to rehab — and they split in 2015 after ten years of marriage.
Actor and director Ben subsequently had romances with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus and actress Ana de Armas.
Then came the ultimate plot twist when, in 2021, Ben and J-Lo reunited.
I never shied away from the fact that for me, I always felt like there was a real love there, a true love there
Ben last year
Needless to say, their hard launch on Instagram following months of rumours broke the internet.
It was the stuff Hollywood fairytales are made of and fans were captivated.
Later that year, Ben said he was “in awe” of J-Lo, while she told Elle magazine: “I never shied away from the fact that for me, I always felt like there was a real love there, a true love there.
J-Lo has already hinted at what’s to come, after unveiling her brand new track Wreckage Of You[/caption]
Following the breakdown of their two-year long marriage, Ben has been stoically silent[/caption]
“When we reconnected, those feelings for me were still very real.”
They wed the following year — first tying the knot in July 2022 in Las Vegas, before a lavish ceremony in Georgia that August.
For a moment in time, it seemed like both stars had finally found their happily ever after.
But, unfortunately, reality started to set in.
Initially, pictures spread of them snapping at each other in public.
Then, in February 2023, cameras captured them appearing tense at the Grammys, as Jen was seen telling a stony-faced Ben: “Look more friendly, look motivated”.
Whispers grew and, by early 2024, J-Lo was clearly doing everything in her power to prove the naysayers wrong.
That February, she released her visual album, This Is Me . . . Now, and its accompanying, making-of documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
In it, she played a serial bride who toiled endlessly in a hydraulic “love factory” before ultimately reuniting with one true love, Ben.
Time to shine
The double-whammy project did what J-Lo does best — put herself, and her love life front and centre.
But for a publicity- adverse Ben, it was reportedly the straw that broke the camel’s back.
In the documentary, he was seen learning that his wife had handed over a very intimate book he had given her filled with love letters.
He was clearly annoyed by the overexposure, and the album’s dismal reception did nothing to repair the rift growing between them.
As she struggled to save her fourth, failing marriage, J-Lo took a step back from the spotlight she loves.
In May, she announced she was cancelling her Summer tour This Is Me…Live! to be with her family, telling fans: “Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.”
Ben and J-Lo reunited in 2021, after a lengthy split[/caption]
Now, we know she was doing it to salvage her marriage — which, sadly, couldn’t be saved.
She filed for divorce last August, on their second anniversary.
In the aftermath, the superstar has embraced being single.
In November, she told Interview mag: “You have to be complete . . . you have to be good on your own. I thought I learned that, but I didn’t. This summer, I had to be like, ‘I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that’.”
She’s clearly stuck to her word, taking herself out of the dating game while reminding the entire male race what they’re missing with a sexier image than ever.
On Valentine’s Day this year, she told fans: “Self-love don’t cost a thing” in a thinly-veiled dig at Ben.
And having cancelled her tour last year, Jen has launched herself full throttle back into the spotlight.
Ben may have hated the media attention, but J-Lo loves it, and she’s putting two fingers up to anyone trying to dim her light.
Anyone who thought Jennifer was a victim in all of this is wrong
A source
As well as her European trek, which concludes on August 12 in Sardinia, she is also gearing up for her Up All Night In Las Vegas residency, which kicks off in December.
And she will soon be seen in the remake of musical drama Kiss Of The Spider Woman, which hits cinemas in October.
The message is clear: it is J-Lo’s time to shine.
A source revealed: “Anyone who thought Jennifer was a victim in all of this is wrong. The pain of the break-up is over and now she is channelling that into what she does best — making music.
“Jennifer knows her worth and wants to empower other women who’ve walked the same path as her. She has a really powerful body of music ready to go.
“If anyone hasn’t quite cottoned on to what she’s trying to say, when this album drops, it’ll become crystal clear.”
Ben may have hated being in the eye of the media storm, but J-Lo loves it, pictured together last year before the split[/caption]
