Ben Affleck Addressed the "Sexist, Racist" Media Coverage Jennifer Lopez Faced When They Dated

• Ben Affleck said Jennifer Lopez received "sexist, racist" media coverage during their relationship and engagement.
• "You know, there's always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially," Affleck said on the Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast.
• "People were so fucking mean about her—sexist, racist. Ugly, vicious shit was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said," he continued.

Ben Affleck discussed the media fixation on his relationship with Jennifer Lopez in a new interview, reflecting on the "sexist, racist" coverage Lopez received in the tabloids. Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, Affleck revisited his high-profile relationship with Lopez, who he dated from 2002 to 2004, and applauded the actor, musician, and businesswoman for her astonishing, decades-long career.

"You know, there's always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially," Affleck said. "People were so fucking mean about her—sexist, racist. Ugly, vicious shit was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said."

"Now it's like, she's lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished—as well she fucking should be! I would say you have a better shot, coming from the Bronx, of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than you do of having Jennifer Lopez's career and being who she is at 50 years old today."

Back in 2017, Lopez spoke about the end of her relationship with Affleck, as well as the critically eviscerated 2005 movie Gigli in which the then-couple starred. "I was eviscerated," she told Vanity Fair."I lost my sense of self, questioned if I belonged in this business, thought maybe I did suck at everything."

"My relationship [with Affleck] self-destructed in front of the entire world," Lopez continued. It was a two-year thing for me until I picked myself up again."

Affleck, who is now dating actor Ana de Armas, also shot down accusations that he deliberately engages in "pap walks" for publicity in his Hollywood Reporter interview. "Still, to this day, [some] will go, 'I see you out there in the paparazzi and the pictures!'" he said. It's like, 'Yes, I left my house and took out the trash. It's not like I'm trying to—' And it's still like, 'You were taking a pap walk!' As if, if you leave your house, you're only doing so in the hope that you could be so lucky that you could end up as the sixth item in The Daily Mail. It's absurd!"