It will be Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s two year anniversary in August; two years since the wedding that might never have happened, after the A-list couple ended their original engagement in 2004. And yet, after proving their critics wrong by reuniting in 2021 and falling in love all over again, twenty years later the couple are once again mired in speculation that their relationship could be on the rocks.

In the past week rumours about the A-list pair have reached fever pitch, with US tabloids suggesting they are currently living apart, and eagle-eyed reports disclosing that they haven’t been photographed together for over seven weeks. For a couple who usually can’t resist a power-PDA on the red carpet, the fact they have in the past couple of weeks attended big events solo hasn’t gone unnoticed.

On Thursday, Lopez added fuel to the already building fires when she ‘liked’ an Instagram post which listed various relationship red flags. The post, created by relationship coach Lenna Marsak, discussed the challenges of a relationship where there is no ‘integrity and respect.’ It features several text slides, beginning with, ‘You cannot build a healthy relationship with someone who lacks integrity and emotional safety.’

Other slides in the post detailed issues such as a partner who ‘doesn’t respect your time, doesn’t think it’s important to call/text back in a respectable time frame, repeatedly fails to follow through on their promises and lacks effective communication skills.’ The post goes on to say: ‘Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Without integrity, it’s difficult to trust someone’s words, actions, or intentions. This can create an environment of fear, anxiety, and emotional instability, making it challenging to feel safe and secure in the relationship.’ In the caption of the post the author wrote: ‘You can’t build a relationship with someone who is disconnected from themselves. We can’t expect someone to see us when we can’t even see themselves.’

While the couple haven’t been seen together since March (when they were spotted house hunting on the Upper East Side in New York), reports have now suggested that Affleck may even have moved out of their $61 million Beverly Hills mansion and is currently residing in a separate property in nearby Brentwood (although neither Affleck nor Lopez has commented on this).

One US magazine spoke with an ‘insider’ who said that ‘the writing is on the wall’ for the couple who have always been known simply as Bennifer. ‘It’s over’, the source said, adding, ‘they waited almost two decades to get back together, but in the end, they just couldn’t make it work.’ The magazine’s source claimed that Affleck moved out in order to ‘focus on his work and his kids’ (he shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, whom he split from in 2018.

Affleck and Lopez are, however, both still wearing their wedding rings in the most recent paparazzi photographs of them from this week. It’s always wise to take shock split reports with a hefty pinch of salt, but there are certainly some goings on which lend themselves to speculation that there may be trouble in paradise. First of all, as the Daily Mail has already pointed out, the pair have not been seen together for seven weeks – but have been attending events solo (something they haven’t tended to do in the last couple of years).

Lopez attended the Met Ball solo at the start of this month, and went viral for snapping at a red carpet interviewer who asked her what she was wearing (it was Schiaparelli, in case you were wondering). Affleck also showed up at Netflix’s live roast of NFL star Tom Brady last week and made what the New York Post described as an ‘unhinged six minute rant’ onstage, laying into online trolls. At the end of the speech Affleck admitted, ‘I’m probably never going to work again, actually, after tonight.’

Online speculation after the event questioned whether Affleck might be going through something at home which had caused him to behave unusually – though his ‘Sad Ben’ persona has already become internet folklore in the past year or so, as photographs of the actor at red carpet events or walking alongside his wife getting coffee show him looking routinely downcast. When asked about the ongoing meme in January, Lopez laughed it off. ‘You don’t need to worry about Ben, let me just tell you,’ she told an interviewer on the red carpet for the Golden Globes, adding, ‘He is good. He is happy.’

Grazia’s source says that Affleck and Lopez have definitely been working on issues ever since they got back together in 2021. More recently, the source says, the pair have been dealing with various tensions this year – with Lopez’s This Is Me… Now album performing worse than expected (reaching only number 38 in the US charts) and some of her tour dates being cancelled because of low ticket sales. Meanwhile the pair appeared to bring speculation about their relationship upon themselves in the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The film, which came out in February, detailed the highs and lows of their rekindled romance in Lopez’s new documentary, with Affleck revealing he initially asked his wife to keep their relationship offline when they decided to give things another go.

In the film, Affleck, who went to rehab multiple times for alcohol addiction, admits he had some concern about being thrust further into the public eye – and had zero interest in becoming a fixture on his wife’s social media accounts. ‘Getting back together, I said, “Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,”’ the actor says. ‘Then I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, “Well, I don’t like the water.”‘ He continued: ‘We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.’ The documentary also saw Lopez sharing private love letters that Affleck wrote to her, a choice which made headlines when Affleck didn’t seem too happy she had done so.

While their approaches to fame and their work are said to be ongoing pressure points between the couple, as is the undeniable public scrutiny about their relationship (something which has always driven Affleck mad), Grazia’s source says that all is not yet lost for the couple. ‘There are some saving graces, even amidst all this dysfunction and turmoil. As far as most people are aware, this feels like a bit of a cooling off period as opposed to a formal separation,’ says the source. ‘They might not be doing their usual PDA’s for the camera, but don’t give up on them just yet – there’s a lot of love there.’