By Daniel D'Addario

There’s something particularly painful about the news that — on the exact day of their Georgia wedding in 2022 — Jennifer Lopez has filed for divorce from Ben Affleck. Up until now, we’ve been intimately invited into their love story.

Lopez, as documented in Stephen Rodrick's profile for this magazine, took a career risk with the album and feature film "This Is Me… Now." The record is a series of love songs about a journey of self-discovery that led Lopez to forgive herself and make her ready to accept Affleck's love again. (The couple had been together from 2002 to 2004 and were even engaged; reunited, they married for the first time in a Nevada chapel in July 2022, an event chronicled in Lopez's song "Midnight Trip to Vegas," followed by a private ceremony at Affleck's Georgia compound the following month.) And the film, into which Lopez put $20 million of her own fortune, takes Lopez even further — she finds Affleck, who makes a cameo as her onscreen lover, in the final moments. The film was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary called "The Greatest Love Story Never Told," in which Lopez and Affleck discuss the inspiration behind her opus. In total, that's three different creative projects dedicated to the love these two shared.

"This Is Me… Now," in all three incarnations, was rejected by audiences. Lopez's tour to promote the album was rechristened a greatest-hits set — "Let's Get Loud," but let's not get personal — before being scrapped altogether. The cancellation fueled rumors that Lopez needed space to deal with developments in her marriage — and a steady stream of dire news, from the couple's physical separation to the sale of their shared home, seemed relentless.