The pair have remained friends following Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s high-profile divorce last summer.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Nikki Peach<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-1908171525.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”81st Annual Golden Globe Awards” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Sometimes the hardest part of a breakup is the friendships you stand to lose as collateral damage. However, for Jennifer Lopez and Matt Damon, the best friend of her ex-husband, Ben Affleck, that doesn\u2019t seem to be a problem. Not only do they continue to work together, but they have made sure to remain good friends behind the scenes too.<\/p>\n Last September, two weeks after Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck after a whirlwind two-year marriage, she and Damon were photographed having a DMC (deep, meaningful conversation) at the Toronto International Film Festival. They both attended the afterparty of their film, Unstoppable<\/em>, and were pictured sat on the floor, holding hands and having a heart to heart.<\/p>\n It is, ironically, one of the Hollywood contingent\u2019s more relatable portraits. Who hasn\u2019t bumped into the friend of an ex, or the ex of a friend, on a night out and been dragged aside for a debrief at some stage in their lives? It\u2019s almost a rite of passage in the breakup process. At the time, a source told People that Lopez is \u2018very close with Matt\u2019 and \u2018enjoyed spending time with him\u2019 at the afterparty in Toronto. An eyewitness claimed they were chatting for 20 minutes, which is fairly brief by most drunken ex-chat standards.<\/p>\n However, the photos did more than the remind us that A-listers are not exempt from these beleaguered conversations, or that Affleck and Lopez\u2019s divorce had real consequences, it reminded us that Lopez and Damon have their own friendship. It might not be as strong as Affleck and Damon\u2019s bond \u2013 who have been friends since childhood and burst onto the scene together in 1997 co-starring in and co-writing their Oscar-winning debut, Good Will Hunting<\/em> \u2013 but it still exists.<\/p>\n Affleck and Damon were, and still are, thought of as a Hollywood duo, even if they work together more often behind the scenes than in front of the camera these days. Any friendship that spans four decades is likely to mean they have both grown close to each other\u2019s partners as well. While Affleck and Lopez didn\u2019t reunite until 2021 or get married until 2022, they famously first dated between 2002 and 2004 after meeting on the set of Gigli. They got engaged in 2002 before calling off the wedding two years later and ultimately parting ways.<\/p>\n This means when they reunited 20 years later, in many ways Lopez reunited with Damon too. When asked about the exes getting back together in 2021, Damon told Extra<\/em>: \u2018I\u2019m just so happy for him. He\u2019s the best. He deserves every happiness in the world. I\u2019m glad for both of them.\u2019 The actor was in attendance at their wedding in Riceboro, Georgia, the following summer, and regularly hung out with the couple along with his wife Luciana Barroso.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] However, Lopez and Damon\u2019s friendship did not only exist through Affleck. They have also worked together and continue to do so. Lopez starred in Affleck and Damon\u2019s film, Unstoppable<\/em>, last year, but she is also set to feature in Kiss of the Spider Woman<\/em> later this year, which is a musical drama produced by Damon and written and directed by Bill Condon. Lopez stars in the titular role and is apparently gunning for awards season already. An insider close to both stars tells us, \u2018No matter how things ended between her and Ben, this film is a passion project for Matt and Jennifer, they\u2019re going to see it through to the bitter end and they\u2019re both going to fight to get her into the Best Supporting actress race.\u2019 The pursuit of great art trumps any tension between the exes and their mutual friend, the source added. \u2018In success, everybody benefits, including Matt\u2019s business partner Ben.\u2019<\/p>\n While some have labelled Damon and Lopez\u2019s ongoing friendship \u2018unusual\u2019 or even \u2018suspicious\u2019, it seems to be neither of those things. Even when they were pictured holding hands, it\u2019s more than likely they were discussing Affleck. Only a week before were Damon, his wife and their three children spotted out for dinner with Affleck anyway, so he was probably just playing the role of middleman.<\/p>\n Having been happily married to Barroso since 2005, Damon has managed to keep his personal life largely out of the spotlight and has spoken openly about how he would struggle to live with Affleck\u2019s level of fame. Speaking on the Radio Times podcast last year alongside his The Instigators<\/em> co-star and Affleck\u2019s younger brother, Casey Affleck, he said: \u2018I\u2019ve been really lucky in that way\u2026 especially when I look at Casey\u2019s brother, Ben. I can\u2019t imagine living under that kind of scrutiny.\u2019<\/p>\n Noting that it\u2019s been that way since the early noughties, even before Affleck and Lopez first dated, he continued: \u2018And it\u2019s been like that for 25 years, and we\u2019ve had parallel careers in a lot of ways, so I\u2019m fortunate to have been kind of excused from that part of fame.\u2019<\/p>\n Damon clearly has discretion down to a fine art and knows how to keep his personal friendships with both exes private \u2013 and his working relationships with both of them functioning too. Whether that will continue once Affleck and Lopez eventually move on with new partners is another question, but they are all moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n Given that Lopez and Affleck\u2019s divorce was easily one of the biggest showbiz stories of 2024, the aftermath has been fairly drama-free. The divorce itself was handled swiftly and amicably, without any salacious tell-all interviews or financial fallouts, and they appear to have joint custody of their mutual friends. Who knows, perhaps that drunken DMC with Damon was pivotal after all. It\u2019s always our best friends who have out best interests at heart.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The pair have remained friends following Lopez and Affleck’s divorce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9844"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9861,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844\/revisions\/9861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘They’re going to see this through to the bitter end’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]