If you want to try and hit Jennifer Lopez with personal questions about her marriage to Ben Affleck and the gossip currently surrounding it, you’ll have to go through Simu Liu first. And the Barbie star has had kenough of that, thank you very much. Liu slapped down a reporter’s question on Lopez’s behalf at a media event this week.
At a press conference for her upcoming film Atlas in Mexico City Wednesday, a reporter from an unidentified outlet threw out a personal question for Lopez, shouting, “Is your divorce with Ben Affleck real? These rumors?”
They continued: “What is the truth?”
Lopez and Affleck, who are approaching their second wedding anniversary in their second-chance romance after being engaged in the early aughts and rekindling their relationship nearly two decades later, have been the subject of speculation recently. They weren’t photographed together for 47 days, attending high-profile events like the Met Gala 2024 (Lopez, a co-chair) and the televised roast of Tom Brady (Affleck, a speaker) solo. Last week, they broke their pictorial blackout and were spotted together at a school play for one of Affleck’s children. Lopez is now on the promotional circuit for Atlas, which brings us back to her facing the direct question about her marriage.
Lopez laughed in seeming surprise at the interjection. Beside her onstage, costar Liu came to her defense. “Okay, we’re not doing that,” he said immediately. “Thank you so much guys, we really appreciate it. Thank you.”
Lopez had her own comment, which delivered directly to the unnamed reporter: “You know better than that.”
Liu, again, backed her up. “C’mon, don’t come in with that energy, please,” he said.
The press conference continued apace from there, back to the business of the film. Lopez concluded the event by blowing the reporters a kiss and thanking them in Spanish, adding “no one asked me anything in Spanish, but OK.”
Neither Affleck nor Lopez has commented publicly on the state of their marriage recently.
Representatives for Jennifer Lopez and Simu Liu did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
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