Is Bennifer Getting Divorced?

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for ELLE

J.Lo and Ben Affleck have a habit of setting off breakup rumors. When you reunite 18 years after calling off a highly publicized engagement, tabloids are bound to pounce on every tense moment. It doesn’t help that Ben tends to walk around with a severe case of resting divorce face.

So naturally, an alarming number of tabloids are currently confident that the early aughts’ most over-the-top couple is hurtling toward divorce. I am upset, sad, and stressed about the logistics of their Dunkin’ endorsement deal. I’m also not entirely convinced — although a recent photo of Affleck speeding away from a Brentwood residence where TMZ claims he’s been staying solo is not doing much to buoy my spirits.Here’s the evidence that’s been offered up.

On Wednesday, In Touch claimed to have heard from an “insider” that “the writing is on the wall” for Bennifer — “it’s over.” The tabloid’s source claimed that “they waited almost two decades to get back together, but in the end, they just couldn’t make it work.” Per the chatty insider, Affleck has already moved out of their house, abandoning their 17 bathrooms to “focus on his work and his kids.” The bottom line? “They’ll never stop loving each other, but she can’t control him, and he can’t change her. There’s no way it could have lasted.”

In mid-May, the Daily Mail pointed out that the couple hadn’t been seen in public side by side in some time — seven weeks, to be exact. They were previously spotted in Dumbo toward the end of March, when Affleck thoughtfully stroked his wife’s butt in front of a horde of cameras. During that trip, they toured a smattering of Upper East Side townhouses, hinting they might want to add several thousand more square feet to their luxury-real-estate portfolio. But after that, they only popped up separately — Affleck participated in Netflix’s live Tom Brady roast in L.A., and J.Lo co-hosted the Met Gala the following night without him (though to be fair, a whole bunch of Met Gala boyfriends were MIA). Both were seen wandering around L.A. solo (though with their wedding rings), including yet another house-hunting mission in Beverly Hills that J.Lo appeared to handle alone. The Daily Mail was quick to connect the dots and assume J.Lo was shopping for herself, but given the size of these places, who’s to say.

On Thursday night, amid intensifying divorce rumors, J.Lo and Affleck appeared to break their stretch of time apart — they were photographed leaving Affleck’s son’s school play together.

At this point, the theory that Bennifer isn’t living together anymore does seem to hold water. Multiple outlets are saying Affleck has been staying in Brentwood for about a week now, and TMZ published a blurry photo of him zooming away from said residence, signature cig dangling from his wedding-ringed hand.

Speaking of the Tom Brady roast, Affleck delivered a deeply weird six-minute monologue during the show, which involved calling anyone who criticizes Brady on social media “a bitch” before concluding, “I’m probably never going to work again, actually, after tonight.” The appearance prompted speculation that something was going on in his personal life. Which, again, is hard to determine, since all recent sightings indicate he is at his normal, everyday level of being fed up.

A handful of tabloids analyzing In Touch’s “insider” info have cited J.Lo’s February documentary as an example of the couple’s tension. In the movie, Affleck talked about not wanting to have such a publicized relationship and admitted he and his wife were “trying to learn to compromise” when it came to social media. The documentary also saw J.Lo showing a whole bunch of people private love letters that he wrote to her, a choice he didn’t seem too pleased with.

Meanwhile, J.Lo appears to be engaging with some suspect relationship content on Instagram (which, for the record, isn’t the first time she’s been caught making shady likes). On Thursday, a relationship coach shared on her Stories that Lopez had liked a months-old post about how “you cannot build a healthy relationship with someone who … lacks integrity & emotional safety,” “doesn’t respect your time,” and “lacks effective communication skills.”

Still, my main takeaway from J.Lo’s documentary was that, actually, these two were making it work despite being diametrically opposed on basically everything. A few sources speaking with Us Weeklysuggested they’re going through a rough patch but not nearly as close to divorce as the Daily Mail would have us believe. According to Us, the couple is “on two completely different pages most of the time” and has been “having issues” for a few months since J.Lo “started ramping up work commitments and prepping for her tour.” (In potentially related news, a handful of dates for her This Is Me … Now tour mysteriously disappeared in March.) According to the “insider,” J.Lo was just surveilling Beverly Hills homes as potential investment properties. Other sources clarified that Affleck is indeed not living at their usual home at the moment, but the duo has no plans to separate and is working on the relationship.

Plus, the past few months have been filled with plenty of hand-holding, romantic outings, and, of course, the aforementioned butt grab. I don’t know about you, but when I look at this couple, I still see a couple of yacht-loving, over-caffeinated hopeless romantics. I’ll believe a divorce when I see it!

This post has been updated.

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