Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have experienced a lot together over the years.
To mark the pair’s second wedding anniversary on Tuesday, July 16, PEOPLE is looking back on everything the couple said about each other in Lopez’s Prime Video documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
In the documentary, which the “Waiting for Tonight” singer released alongside This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, fans got a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her ambitious cinematic project. The documentary includes interviews with her inner circle, collaborators and Affleck.
Here’s everything the couple, who is currently navigating a new chapter in their marriage and spending time part, said about each other in the documentary, which premiered in February.
Despite some hesitation, Affleck supported her artistic expression
Early on in the documentary, Lopez’s idea to create a project that delved in her love story with the Hypnotic actor was met with resistance from her inner circle.
Still choosing to follow her heart, Lopez explains that though Affleck has never been one to be open about his private life, he supported her artistic expression.
“I don’t think he’s very comfortable with me doing all of this but he loves me, he knows I’m an artist and he’s going to support me in every way he can,” Lopez, 54, says in the doc. “He doesn’t want to stop me… But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.”
Affleck, 51, adds, “Jen is really inspired by this experience which is how artists do their work. They get inspired, their personal life, it moves you. I know as a writer and director, I certainly do the same things. But things that are private, I’d always felt are sacred and special because, in part, they’re private. So this was something of an adjustment for me.”
At the very end of the documentary, it all comes full circle when Affleck realizes that the documentary wasn’t about him necessarily — it was about Lopez’s journey to self-love.
“I don’t really love being in the making-of documentary about my personal life, which is why I’m relieved that… it seems like I might be in this but I’m not really. I was worrying for no reason,” he says. “The movie wasn’t about me. It was about the ability to love yourself and that love story is a lot f—ing harder to find than Prince Charming.”
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Their love story deeply inspired her
In The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Lopez gets candid about how much their story — and Affleck — mean to her.
“We’re totally different people now [yet] we’re the same and we have the same love. 100%. I’d never fallen out of love with you. I had just put it over here,” she says, referencing their breakup in 2004, which happened only three days before their planned wedding.
Elsewhere in the documentary, Lopez grows emotional as she details how nobody has ever believed in her the way Affleck does.
“What he said and what he saw in me and what he made me believe about myself only comes from love. Because nobody else could’ve made me see that about myself,” Lopez says in tears. “It’s very moving. I didn’t think much of myself and so the world didn’t think much of me. That lined up. This is how it is. See it. Believe it.”
It was because of this that their breakup took such a toll on her.
“For all those years, it was really hard because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life,” she says. “I felt like I lost the best friend that I ever had and I couldn’t talk [about it] for so many years. That was the hardest part.”
Affleck broke down Lopez’s childhood trauma
At one point in the documentary, Lopez looks back at her upbringing and desire to be “seen,” one motivating factor behind her steadfast work ethic.
Then, Affleck explains her childhood trauma from his perspective and says she felt “emotionally neglected as a child.”
“We are kind of learning more and more, it doesn’t have to be the kind of trauma where you’re locked in a basement for a year to leave wounds on you. In fact, they’re deceptive when they’re harder to pin down,” he says.
He also says that it’s easier to look at someone who is “widely successful” and assume “they’re living the happiest life in the world” on social media.
“The thing you discover like you do with alcohol is that there isn’t enough alcohol in all the liquor stores in the world to fill up that thing and in Jennifer’s case, I don’t think there’s enough followers or movies or records or any of that stuff to still that part of you that still feels a longing and a pain. Ultimately that’s the work that you’ve got to do on your own,” he concludes.
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They differ in their approach to the public eye — but sought compromise
Reflecting on what led to their split in 2004, Affleck says the catalyst was a “massive amount of scrutiny around our private life.”
Lopez shares her side: “We bought a Bentley and drove around town with it. It’s like, ‘Yeah take pictures of us.’ It wasn’t that. We were just celebrating our lives and our love.”
When the couple decided to get back together, Affleck didn’t want their relationship to be under the spotlight again. Then, he realized it takes compromise.
“I had a very firm sense of boundaries initially around the press, while Jen, I don’t think objected to it in the way I did. I very much did object to it. Getting back together I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’ ” he says.
He continues, “Then I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like you’re going to marry a boat captain and you go, ‘Well, I don’t like the water.’ We’re just two people with different approaches trying to learn to compromise.”
They found forgiveness for one another
In a sit-down interview where Affleck is interviewing Lopez, the Air actor asks the Atlas actress if she’s found forgiveness for him.
“When I first read the script, it looked like the inciting incident that causes all this pain down the road is our breakup,” Affleck says. “I thought, ‘Wow. Nobody did anything wrong. It was mutual.’ I think for us to move on from that, we have to kind of forgive it. Forgive each other. Do you forgive me?”
The clip cuts off before Lopez can respond, and toward the end of the documentary, she finally answers the question.
“I’ve forgiven you all the way. I think I need to forgive myself [on] some things.”
The Greatest Love Story Never Told is now streaming on Prime Video.
