It’s a rough time for those of us unnecessarily invested in the once-dead, now-rekindled love affair between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck (and, of course, the third member of their relationship: Dunkin). Rumors have been flying that the seemingly golden couple’s marriage is on the rocks—to the point that a journalist actually asked if Lopez and Affleck were getting divorced during a panel discussion about Lopez’s new Netflix film, Atlas, in Mexico City on Wednesday.
“You know better than that,” Lopez fired back in her typical take-no-bullshit style, as groans and laughter erupted from the audience. Her co-lead, Simu Liu, also jumped in to defend her: “OK, we’re not doing that. Thank you so much, guys. We really appreciate it. Don’t come in with that energy, please.”
It’s easy to forget when you’re flipping through celebrity tabloids (as I am on every single flight I take, regardless of the duration), but for Lopez and her costars, promoting Atlas is work, no matter how well-dressed or blinged-out they may be for the occasion. I am generally against people—and women in particular—being hammered on the details of their personal lives, but I’m especially against it in a work context. I mean, would you want some stranger in your office pumping you for details about your relationship?
Of course, one could argue that for a celebrity of J.Lo’s stature, disclosing personal information whenever prompted is also work, but frankly, I don’t entirely buy that. “Celebrity privacy” isn’t generally high on my list of global concerns, but if Lopez were sitting for an in-depth interview titled “The Truth About My Marriage” (which, by the way, I would be happy to conduct, so hit me up, Lopez team!), I would indeed expect her to open up about the situation with Affleck. As it stands, though, she’s just trying to promote a movie, one that isn’t even remotely thematically tied to what may or may not be going on with her at home, so maybe we should just…let her do that?
