Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck's 20-year journey to marriage and happily ever after

close

Video

Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines August 18

Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. Check out what clicked this week in entertainment.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got married last month in Las Vegas after a 20-year journey, and now they're set to celebrate their nuptials with a three-day extravaganza.

Lopez, 52, first announced her marriage to Affleck, 49, in her newsletter.

"We did it," Lopez wrote, along with new photos from the moment in July. "Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient."

Lopez and Affleck obtained a marriage license in Nevada on July 17. The "On the Floor" singer also filed to legally change her name to Jennifer Lynn Affleck, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

The newly wedded couple will celebrate their union over the weekend at Affleck's Georgia estate. The celebrity roster heading South for the three-day event is expected to include the likes of Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel, Ben’s brother, Casey Affleck, and Drea de Matteo.

The "Waiting for Tonight" singer is expected to wear "a custom couture Ralph Lauren dress" made in Italy, with Vogue capturing her fashion journey.

Affleck’s private property is situated across 87 acres. The 6,000-square-foot main mansion is designed to look like an old plantation house with 24-foot columns, shutters and a wraparound porch. The compound has three separate structures and is roughly one hour outside of Savannah on the exclusive Hampton Island Preserve.

The weekend will reportedly feature a rehearsal dinner along with a wedding ceremony and will be completed with a barbeque picnic.

JENNIFER LOPEZ ANNOUNCES MARRIAGE TO BEN AFFLECK IN SURPRISE WEDDING: ‘WE DID IT. LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL’

Here's a timeline of the couple's 20-year journey to happily ever after:

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck met on set

After appearing together in "Gigli," Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck filmed "Jersey Girl." In November 2002, Lopez confirmed that Affleck had proposed to her. The 6.1-carat pink diamond ring reportedly cost the Oscar winner $2.5 million. (Tom Kingston/WireImage via Getty Images)

Lopez and Affleck first met on the set of "Gigli" in 2002. They began dating and were engaged before the end of the year.

The couple confirmed their engagement to Diane Sawyer in 2002.

"I'd probably say that he is brilliantly smart, loving, charming, affectionate. And I just admire him in every way. I respect him. I feel like he teaches me things," Lopez told Sawyer about Affleck at the time.

"We talked about how people kind of see him with one type of person and me with another type of person, and the two of us together is like, 'How did that happen?'; and how we're probably more alike and from the same kind of background and, you know, same kind of upbringing and same kind of family and same kind of house."

A broken engagement

With the explosion of tabloid magazines, Affleck and Lopez became the hottest couple to follow, and they dealt with paparazzi nearly everywhere they went. The media scrutiny was said to be a large issue for the couple.

"We didn't try to have a public relationship," Lopez told People magazine in 2016. "We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like, 'Oh my God.' It was just a lot of pressure."

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez postponed their wedding days before the special event was supposed to happen. They called off their engagement completely in January 2004. (Arnaldo Magnani)

Lopez and Affleck postponed their wedding just days before the special date, citing the "media attention."

"Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date," Affleck and Lopez said in the statement in 2003. "When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate 'decoy brides' at three different locations, we realized that something was awry."

"We felt what should have been a joyful and sacred day could be spoiled for us, our families and our friends," they added.

The two had a rocky relationship following the postponement and officially called it quits in January 2004.

"It felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest," Lopez wrote in her 2014 book "True Love" in regard to the breakup.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

Lopez and Affleck moved on to find love with others

Both Lopez and Affleck moved on and married other people following their widely reported breakup.

Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Garner, whom he had met on the set of "Pearl Harbor" in 2000. Garner was married to Scott Foley at the time, and Affleck has publicly said the two fell in love in 2002 while filming "Daredevil." The "Good Will Hunting" actor was in a relationship with Lopez at that time.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck married in 2005 and share three kids. They finalized their divorce in 2018. (AP, File)

Affleck and Garner got engaged in 2005. They welcomed three children together before divorcing in 2018.

Lopez has been married three times before. She was briefly married to Ojani Noa from 1997-1998 and to Cris Judd from 2001-2003.

Following her split from Affleck, she married Marc Anthony in 2004. The couple welcomed twins in 2008. Anthony and Lopez divorced in 2016.

Jennifer Lopez married Marc Anthony in 2004 before divorcing in 2016. The two share twins. (Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)

Rekindled romance

Following the divorce, Lopez was linked to Alex Rodriguez. Affleck also dated a handful of women, including "SNL" producer Lindsay Shookus and Ana de Armas.

However, in April 2021, Lopez and Affleck were spotted together for the first time since their breakup in 2004. By July 2021, the "Let's Get Loud" singer had posted Affleck on her Instagram, making the couple social media official.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are photographed in September 2021 after rekindling their relationship. (Gotham/Wireimage)

Back in 2016, Lopez recalled how she felt about Affleck when she first met him.

"I felt like … ‘OK, this is it.’ [But] sometimes I feel like what you think people are and how you see them when you love them is different than when they reveal later," Lopez told Jess Cagle in 2016. "I think different time, different thing, who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there."

Ben Affleck asks Jennifer Lopez to marry him … again

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are seen on April 13, 2022, in Los Angeles, days after the singer confirmed her engagement to the actor. (Bellocqimages/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

By April 2022, Affleck had proposed to Lopez. The actress was first spotted wearing what seemed to be an engagement ring. She confirmed the engagement in a newsletter to her fans on April 8.

Lopez explained that Affleck had proposed while she was enjoying a bubble bath, her "favorite place on Earth."

"I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again, I was quite literally speechless and he said, "is that a yes?’" she wrote for her fans.

"I said ‘YES of course that’s a YES.’"

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A surprise wedding

Jennifer Lopez shared a black-and-white photo of her husband, Ben Affleck, kissing her neck as she announced she was married. (Jennifer Lopez/OntheJLo.com)

Jennifer Lopez took pictures with her kids in the pink convertible at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas before marrying Ben Affleck. (Jennifer Lopez/OntheJLo.com)

Twenty years later, Affleck and Lopez have finally tied the knot.

On July 16, the couple flew to Las Vegas and obtained a marriage license. They traveled to A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas and arrived just before midnight.

"When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another," Lopez wrote in her newsletter, where she announced the marriage.

"We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives."

Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright contributed to this report.