Ben's MIDLIFE CRISIS

WITH HIS MARRIAGE TO JENNIFER LOPEZ IN TATTERS, BEN AFFLECK MOVES TO PROTECT HIMSELF BEFORE HE SPIRALS BACK INTO FRIGHTENING OLD PATTERNS.

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SOMEONE didn’t get the memo. At a May 22 press conference for her new Netflix film, Atlas, in Mexico City, Jennifer Lopez was caught off guard when a reporter asked whether the rumors about trouble in her two-year marriage to Ben Affleck were “real.” Flustered, the 54-year-old brushed off the question, playfully scolding, “You know better than that.”

That wasn’t a no, J.Lo! Though fans celebrated Bennifer 2.0, Ben, 51, and Jennifer — who reunited 20 years after they first dated — the pair couldn’t sustain the fairy tale. Now sources tell Star it was three-time rehab vet Ben who pumped the brakes — in part for self-preservation — by moving out of the couple’s house into a $100K-a-month rental near his exwife, Jennifer Garner, and their three kids. “At the end of the day, Ben has to protect himself, and that’s why he initiated the separation,” says an insider. “He’s scared if they stay together, he could seriously self-destruct.”