It was the glitziest of Hollywood weddings, set in a $8.9 million Georgian mansion with a star-studded guest list.
Yet the marriage of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck is all the more special and interesting because of the fact it’s the couple’s second engagement.
In fact, the ‘Benifer saga’ has been running for more than 20 years after they first began dating in 2002 before splitting in 2004 – only to get back together in 2021.
Yet they are far from the only couple in Hollywood to have split up and got back together again – with celebs such as Osbournes and the Biebers finding love with one another after taking a break.
Meanwhile other couples including Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel also broke up before reuniting for good.
Here, FEMAIL reveals other famous couples who rekindled their romance, sometimes after years apart…
JENNIFER LOPEZ AND BEN AFFLECK
TIME APART: 20 YEARS
Second time lucky: The happy couple (picture here on their recent wedding day at Ben Affleck’s $8.9m Georgian mansion) were originally engaged in 2003, but called-off their relationship before rekindling their romance
Giving it another go! Ben and Jennifer were together for two years before splitting up in the early noughties (left). They reunited last year, and tied-the-knot this week (right)
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck began dating in the summer of 2002, getting engaged in the November of that year.
They postponed their wedding in September 2003, citing excessive media attention, and officially split in January 2004.
Ben subsequently went on to marry Jennifer Garner, having three children, while JLo married Marc Anthony, having twins.
In 2016, JLo spoke of her ex Ben, telling People: ‘I think different time, different thing, who knows what could have happened, but there was genuine love there.’
Clearly… as the couple rekindled their relationship in July 2021, marrying officially in Las Vegas in July 2022.
Joining the family in celebrating the union were several A-Listers close to the celebrity couple.
Matt Damon, long associated with Affleck and a co-Oscar winner with his fellow Massachusetts native for Good Will Hunting, was spotted at the scene with his wife, Luciana Barroso. The couple arrived at an airfield near the site of the celebration aboard a private jet.
Director Kevin Smith and actor Jason Mewes – famous for their pairing as ‘Jay and Silent Bob’ – were also spotted in Georgia for the party.
Smith was seen at a Hertz rental pickup with his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, as they headed for the festivities. Other stars expected at the party included George Clooney, Jane Fonda, Renee Zellweger, and Jimmy Kimmel.
Notably absent was Affleck’s younger brother, Casey, 47, who said he had to miss out on the wedding due to ‘parental obligations at home.’
Also missing from the celebration was Affleck’s ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, who remains close friends with Affleck but could not attend due to scheduling conflicts as she is filming in Texas.
SHARON AND OZZY OSBOURNE
TIME APART: ONE YEAR
A happy day: The couple married on 4 July 1982 in Hawaii. Here, Sharon stares adoringly at her husband while he rocks a white suit and shaggy hair (left). After splitting in 2016, they reunited a year later (right, together)
As one of the UK’s most famous couples, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have been making headlines since they tied the knot in Hawaii back in 1982.
Ozzy, 73, and Sharon, 69, have had a tumultuous relationship since they met back in 1970, when Sharon’s father managed Ozzy’s band Black Sabbath.
The couple welcomed three children over a two year period – Aimee, born in 1983, Kelly in 1984 and Jack in 1985.
They first shocked fans in 1989 when the singer was arrested for attempting to strangle his wife in a booze-fuelled rage.
They surprised everyone when in 2016 they announced that they were divorcing after 33 years of marriage.
This was after news of infidelity – with rumours of the Black Sabbath star having six affairs – that finally broke them.
Sharon has said she forgives her husband but doesn’t trust him.
In 2016 she told The Sun: ‘Can I ever trust him again? I don’t know. I’m now questioning every statement – every move. The lies and intrigue still hurt.’
But their split didn’t last long and within the year they were back together.
After their 2016 split, the couple renewed their wedding vows in 2017 in Las Vegas.
More recently Sharon has opened up about her husband’s battle with Parkinson’s disease and the pair celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year.
JUSTIN AND HAILEY BIEBER
TIME APART: ONE YEAR, TWO MONTHS
The couple initially split up in 2016 (left, Justin around the time of the breakup) , but ended up reuniting in 2018 and tied-the-knot last year (right)
The road to love never does run smooth. Cosmopolitan reported that Justin and Hailey were introduced by Hailey’s dad in 2009.
The couple first got together in February 2015 and nearly broke the internet with pictures from their tropical holiday.
This was short lived and in 2016 the couple had already split up and for two years were barely friends.
After calling it quits, Hailey told The Times: ‘We went through a long period of time when we weren’t friends.’
During this time, model Hailey reportedly dated Canadian rapper Drake, while singer Justin was dating American social media personality Sofia Richie.
However, the glam couple couldn’t keep away from each other and in June 2018 were spotted together in New York.
Within a month Justin had confirmed their engagement with a long Instagram post saying that he was committed to spending his life with Hailey, loving her.
They married two months later at a courthouse in New York City but waited until September 2019 for their large lavish wedding with friends.
Then in March 2019 the the Baldwin-Biebers bought a 1930s 6,132-square-feet brick home in Beverly Hills.
BEN STILLER AND CHRISTINE TAYLOR
TIME APART: FIVE YEARS
Ben Stiller and his wife Christine announced their split in 2017 (pictured left, at the Premier of Zoolander 2 in Feb 2016). The couple announced they were back together earlier this year after growing closer during the Covid-19 pandemic (pictured together in 2022)
Happy endings can happen for those who are patient, and no one is as patient as this Hollywood couple.
Ben and Christine first met whilst filming the 1999 TV pilot Heat Vision and Jack, which also starred Jack Black and Owen Wilson
They welcomed their first child, Ella, in 2002 and their second child, Quinlin, in 2005.
During their relationship, the couple have worked together multiple times on films including 2004’s DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story and 2008’s Tropic Thunder.
Five years after their 2017 split Ben and Christine announced that they were back together earlier this year.
Prior to their split the comedian and actress had been married for 17 years, after they tied to knot in Kauai, Hawaii on May 2000.
Ben told Esquire: ‘We were separated and got back together and we’re happy about that. It’s been really wonderful for all of us. Unexpected, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic.’
The couple – who were also close even after their split – spent more time together when Ben moved back in with Christine during the Covid pandemic so he could be closer to their two children.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND JESSICA BIEL
TIME APART: FOUR MONTHS
Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel first dated between 2007 and May 2011, before splitting up (left in 2010). However, they quickly got back together and since, Timberlake has described Biel as the most significant person in his life
As one of the most high-profile couples in Hollywood Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel started dating in 2007, but broke up in March 2011.
They only spent four months apart before rekindling their relationship in the October.
They got engaged shortly afterwards during a holiday in Montana, in December 2011, and were married the following year in 2012.
In a Vanity Fair interview that June, Justin revealed how much he missed Jess, saying: ‘She is the single-handedly most significant person in my life.
‘In my 30 years, she is the most special person, OK? … I would rather not talk about her, because it’s hurtful for me.’
The couple welcomed their first child, son Silas, in April 2015, and son Phineas in 2020.
The two actors first met a party that Justin was hosting for one of his friends, but Jessica needed convincing before going out with him.
Recently, in 2021 Jessica was seen standing by her man when the documentary Framing Britney Spears was released, and many criticised Justin for the way he treated Spears back in the 1990s and early 2000s.
PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON
TIME APART: A FEW MONTHS
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are the epitome of a happy royal marriage, but they did split up briefly in 2007 (left, in 2005). They got back together after a few months (right, earlier this year)
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are the epitome of a happy royal marriage, but they did split up briefly in 2007.
Kate and William’s time apart came after they had been dating for five years since meeting at St Andrew’s University.
The prince was starting a new chapter as as Army officer with the Blues and Royals and was eager to avoid the mistake his parents had made by marrying too hastily.
News of their split broke in the papers and Kate kept herself busy by immersing herself in the London social scene, while remaining discreetly silent about their relationship.
By mid-May the couple were talking on the phone, by June Kate was spotted at a fancy dress party at William’s barracks,
In August, the pair jetted off for a holiday in the Seychelles where William made a promise that a proposal would be forthcoming in the future.
The couple got engaged in October 2010 and married in April the following year.
During an interview to mark their engagement in November 2010, both admitted the brief time apart had been for the best.
‘I think at the time I wasn’t very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person, you find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised,’ Kate said.
‘I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you’re younger. I really valued that time for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time.’
William added: ‘We were both very young . . . we were both finding ourselves and being different characters.
‘It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up so it was just a bit of space and it worked out for the best.’
KIT HARINGTON AND ROSE LESLIE
TIME APART: 11 MONTHS
True love: Rose Leslie and Kit Harington met on Game of Thrones in 2013 and began dating, before briefly splitting. They got back together, and since married. (pictured right, attending the 79th Monaco F1 Grand Prix on May 2022 in Monte Carlo, Monaco)
The Scottish actress appeared on Game of Thrones as Ygritte from 2012 to 2014, while Kit played Jon Snow on the series since its premiere in 2011.
This fictional Game of Thrones couple are now happily married in real life – but back in 2013, Kit Harington and Rose Leslie split up before rekindling their romance in July 2014.
They got engaged in 2017 and were married in June one year later, in a romantic wedding in a Scottish castle, and now share a son.
In May 2016, Harington gushed how ‘easy’ it was to fall in love with Aberdeen beauty Rose.
Recalling his favourite memory of shooting GoT, he told L’Uomo Vogue: ‘The three weeks in Iceland where we shot the second season… because the country is beautiful, the light of the North magic, and why it was there that I fell in love.
‘If you are attracted to a person and in fiction is your love interest, it becomes easy to fall in love.’
Rose, who found fame as servant girl Gwen in Downton Abbey, and Kit purchased a medieval 15th century timber home in the English countryside before their wedding.
The seven-bedroom house boasts a medieval-inspired moat around the property that sits on eight acres in East Anglia.
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