Jennifer Lopez is not turning her divorce from Ben Affleck into a clean celebrity-breakup lesson.
The singer and actress spoke about the split during the June 15 episode of SmartLess, where she said the past few years forced her into a period of self-reflection after a long stretch of personal change.
Lopez, 56, told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett that “everything” in her life has changed over the past couple of years, according to People.
She said she canceled her tour, sat with herself and realized she needed to “figure” herself out instead of looking everywhere else for answers.
Lopez Said the Divorce Forced Her to Look Inward
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Lopez said the past five years had been “a tumult,” while the past two years became “the healing process from that tumult,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
She said she is different now than she was two years ago and can appreciate what she has built for herself. Lopez did not frame the divorce as one person’s fault; she talked instead about examining her own choices and patterns.
“There’s nobody to blame here except yourself, in a certain way,” Lopez said, according to People. She added that she had reached a point where she needed to ask what was going on with herself rather than focusing only on other people.
Lopez also clarified that she was not saying other people always behave well. Her focus, she said, became what she needed to understand about herself.
Her Life Has Changed Beyond the Divorce
Lopez’s comments were not limited to Affleck. She also told the SmartLess hosts that she had moved into a new home and was entering another emotional chapter as her twins, Emme and Max, prepare to start college at the end of the summer.
People reported that Lopez joked about building her “dream house” and getting horses for her children, hoping the stables would encourage them to come home.
The Affleck Marriage Ended After Their Rekindled Romance
Lopez and Affleck’s relationship has been followed for more than two decades. They first dated in the early 2000s, became engaged in 2002 and split in 2004.
The former couple rekindled their relationship in 2021 and married in Las Vegas in July 2022. They later held a larger Georgia celebration that August.
Lopez filed for divorce on Aug. 20, 2024, exactly two years after the Georgia ceremony. People later reported that the divorce was finalized in January 2025.
Affleck and Lopez have since appeared publicly cordial. In October 2025, they posed together at the New York premiere of Kiss of the Spider Woman, which Lopez starred in and Affleck helped produce through Artists Equity.
Lopez Has Been Speaking More Openly About Healing
The SmartLess episode follows another recent interview in which Lopez described a private moment with her father that helped her during the same difficult period.
On Brett Goldstein’s Films to Be Buried With podcast, Lopez recalled watching the Brazilian film I’m Still Here while emotional over her divorce and family life. People reported that her father, David, noticed she was crying, comforted her and told her he loved her.
Lopez said the exchange healed something she needed healed. Together with the SmartLess comments, the story shows how she is publicly framing the post-divorce period now: not as a quick rebound or score-settling moment, but as a longer look at herself after a painful reset.