Ben Affleck praises Jennifer Lopez after divorce: ‘I love and support this person’

 Ben Affleck is opening up about his controversial divorce from Jennifer Lopez. The actor is telling his side of the story during his latest interview with GQ, admitting that while he still has love and appreciation for the singer, the pair had one thing they couldn’t reconcile in their relationship. 

The actor addressed the reason behind the split, emphasizing that their separation was scandal-free and rooted in common relationship challenges. 

"There's no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue,” he told the publication. "It's just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do." 

© Grosby Group PREMIUM EXCLUSIVE

The actor praised Jennifer’s handling of fame while admitting that fame is not part of his skill set. “My temperament is a little bit more reserved and private than hers,” he explained. 

© Steve Granitz

“As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things,” Ben said. “And so I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that?” 

He continued, “Because exactly what you said is true. I love and support this person. I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that.” 

© Bellocqimages/Bauer-Griffin

Ben talked about his participation in JLo’s documentary ‘The Greatest Love Story Never Told’: “Part of it was, 'Okay, if I’m going to participate in this, I want to try to do it in an honest way and in a way that’s interesting.' Because I thought it was an interesting examination," he said.  

© Gotham

He recalled what he said in the documentary, “’You don’t marry a ship captain and then say, "Well, I don’t like going out in the water." 'You’ve got to own what you knew going into any relationship." 

But he said the issue's root was deeper than what people see in the documentary. “I think it’s important to say that wasn’t the cause of some major fracture. It’s not like you can watch that documentary and go, 'Oh, now I understand the issues that these two had,'" he added. 

© Getty Images

The star concluded by saying that despite preferring to keep his personal life price, he doesn’t mind talking about his "personal life a little ... as long as my actual feelings and intentions and beliefs are communicated, which I hope I was clear that really [Jennifer] is somebody I have a lot of respect for."