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: “Okay, 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?
