LOVE, LIES and backlash

AFTER A BUMPER YEAR, THE ACTOR CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

- Jennie Noonan

Ben Affleck’s 2021 began with heartbreak after Ana de Armas dumped him after almost a year of dating. “She broke it off,” a source told People magazine at the time. “They are in different points in their lives.”

A few months later, things were looking up when his path crossed with his newly single former love Jennifer Lopez in April. The reunion of the glamorous power couple, previously engaged for almost two years before splitting in 2004, became the entertainment news story of the year.

“Jennifer feels it’s truly meant to be,” a source tells People. Soon, the swiftly serious pair were blending their families. On Halloween, Affleck went trick or treating with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, their kids Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9, along with Lopez and her twins Max and Emme, 13, whose father is singer Marc Anthony. “Everyone gets along,” another source says.