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This resurfaced Ben Affleck interview proves why it never works getting back together with an ex.

Ben Affleck knows a thing or two about divorce.

Last month, it came out that Jennifer Lopez had filed for divorce two years after they tied the knot, with documents revealing they had separated in April. This marks the second breakup for Affleck and Lopez, who dated in the early '00s before calling off an engagement in 2004.

Their recent reunion followed Ben's first marriage to fellow actor Jennifer Garner, which ended in divorce in 2015.

As their fans tried to sift through the internet for clues that might explain what happened between Bennifer 2.0, an old interview has resurfaced where Affleck shares some pretty illuminating thoughts on why his relationships, well… end badly.

Listen to The Spill's hosts discuss the couple's biggest problem. Post continues after podcast.

Back in 1999, a then-27-year-old Ben was asked during an interview with Playboy if his past behaviour in relationships "pissed off" his ex-partners.

"Mostly, yeah," Ben replied. "Probably justifiably so. If I were the next guy to go out with them, I'm sure I would be nodding in agreement about what an asshole their ex-boyfriend was. It's not like I was a womanizer or physically abusive or psychologically abusive or whatever. It's just that these relationships never end well."

Ben pinpointed what went wrong for him in these relationships.

"I think what happens is, I end up wanting to be out of the relationship," he admitted.

"During the course of a relationship, if you get dissatisfied and unhappy and don't say something, if you don't deal with it right then, it just festers and stays there. So instead of saying, 'Look, don't do that, please don't act this way,' I go along with it until I just don't want to be in the relationship at all."

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were in wedded bliss in 2023. Image: Getty.

Affleck went on to say some things that, err to be honest, would get him cancelled in 2024.

"I can't necessarily blame her at that point since I've developed such a passive-aggressive rage that I have no sympathy and tell her, 'Well of course I didn't call you. If you weren't such a nagging, shrewish harpy I'd call you'," Ben actually said to the magazine.

"But that hopefully is something I'm growing out of."

Umm, hopefully!!

Three years after the interview, Affleck met Lopez on the set of their movie Gigli. After reuniting in 2021 after almost two decades apart, they got married in 2022.

In August, Lopez filed for divorce.

"She tried really hard to make things work, and is heartbroken," a source told PEOPLE.

Could his rogue 1999 interview be a clue as to why? Perhaps.

Feature image: Getty.

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Top Comments

kate m 13 days ago
They are certainly illuminating comments he made back when he was 27. I'd suggest it's important to offer a balanced perspective when shining a light on a situation none of us will truly know what happened. For example JLo has been married 4 times and engaged 6 times. They are also potentially illuminating figures.  Whatever eventuated, I am sure there were mistakes made by both parties and injustices also for both parties. It is sad they didn't make it, I was cheering for them to have their love and marriage be a long term thing.