SAVED by LOVE

BEN AFFLECK STRUGGLED IN THE TWO DECADES FOLLOWING HIS SPLIT FROM JENNIFER LOPEZ. NOW THAT THEY'VE TIED THE KNOT, HE'S RELISHING HIS SECOND CHANCE.

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THEY got their happy ending. On July 16, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck flew to Las Vegas, waited in line for a marriage license with four other couples then headed to the Little White Wedding Chapel, where they tearfully exchanged vows just after midnight on July 17, no one the wiser. "We did it," J.Lo told fans in her onthejlo.com newsletter later that day, confirming their elopement two decades after she and Ben fell in love while making the box office bomb Gigli - and nearly 19 years after they called off their first wedding and parted ways. "Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient," J.Lo added. "Twenty years patient."

Love is also forgiving. Though it was first wife Jennifer Garner who long held Ben accountable and staged the headline-making intervention that sent him to rehab in 2018 following years of alcohol abuse, Ben, 49, struggled after their divorce became final that year. Reconnecting with his former love, 53, in April 2021 turned everything around. "Ben says Jen basically saved his life," an insider tells Star. "It took 20 years for J.Lo to forgive him, but it was worth the wait." After all they've been through, they're ecstatic to get a second chance at happily ever after. "I don't think anybody was more surprised than us," J.Lo's admitted. "It's a beautiful thing."

MESSY PAST