'It took all pressure away': Jennifer Lopez reveals secret Vegas wedding was Ben Affleck's idea
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jennifer Lopez has revealed it was Ben Affleck's idea to have a secret wedding in Las Vegas. The actress, 53, said that she finds large wedding ceremonies "extremely stressful" during her appearance on 'Sunrise' to promote her new movie 'Shotgun Wedding'. The New York-born actress said on Wednesday, January 25 that Ben, 50, suggested they elope to have a modest ceremony in Las Vegas.
“You have all these expectations that you can’t control, and that’s why Ben and I decided to get married the month before in Vegas,” she told The Sun showbiz host Steve Hargrave. “It was his idea and I thought it was brilliant. It took all the pressure off the big wedding we were going to play with our families,” she added. The couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in Las Vegas on July 16 last year before hosting a big reception at Ben's $8.9 million house the following month for friends and family.
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Ben was once engaged to JLo in the early 2000s, and following their breakup, he spent 10 years with Jennifer Garner until divorcing her in 2015. Years after their split, Ben and JLo rekindled their romance in 2021, and they married last July in Las Vegas. "We're older now, we're smarter, we have more experience, we're at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things," Lopez told People last year about their romance. "It's a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other." Ben has three children - Violet, 17, Serafina, 14, and Samuel, 10 - who he shares with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner. J-Lo and her ex-husband Marc Anthony share twin girls Max and Emme, both 14.
Josh Duhamel, Lopez's co-star, wed Audra Mari, his second wife, last year. He claimed, however, that he left all planning to the American model during the press conference. "I was not [a Groomzilla]," Duhamel said. "The wedding was in much better hands with Audra conducting everything. And the wedding was beautiful and it was almost like a surprise wedding in a way because I had no idea what half the stuff was gonna be when I got there," as per Insider. "Just what everyone out there wants to hear. But I was working, she loved it and she did a great job. It was fantastic," he added.
In the upcoming action comedy 'Shot Gun Wedding', Duhamel and Lopez portray an engaged couple whose wedding is disrupted by party-crashing ex-spouses, fighting parents, and a band of pirates. The star-studded cast includes Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, Lenny Kravitz, and Sonia Braga. 'Shotgun Wedding' will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on January 27.
