Prenup or not, Lopez and Affleck’s divorce could get heated

It was almost midnight on a hot July evening in Las Vegas two years ago when Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck arrived at the drive-thru wedding chapel.
Two decades after calling off their highly publicised relationship amid fevered media interest, the Hollywood golden couple known as “Bennifer” said “I do” within 30 minutes of walking through the door.
But the couple’s rekindled romance proved as brief as their wedding ceremony, and on Tuesday Lopez ended months of speculation by filing for divorce in Los Angeles. One of the more intriguing details to emerge from the split was reports suggesting the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement in place.
If true, assets acquired and money earned by Lopez and Affleck since July 2022 — including a $60 million Beverly Hills mansion they bought together — would have to be split, threatening the possibility of the separation turning toxic.
Both have been busy in their careers over the last two years. Lopez, a 55-year-old chart-topping pop star and Hollywood actress has appeared in films including Shotgun Wedding and Mother, which were both streaming successes. She put $20 million of her own money into This Is Me … Now: A Love Story, a visual accompaniment to an album that reached a disappointing No 38 in the US charts. In May, she cancelled a planned summer tour, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family, though critics noted ticket sales had been poor.
Affleck, 52, has also been active since tying the knot. In 2023 he starred in Air, a drama about the rise of Nike and the Air Jordan shoe, with the film a critical and commercial success. Forbes named Affleck — a brand ambassador for the US coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts — one of the year’s top-earning actors and said in 2023, he made $38 million. He has other films in the pipeline.
During the honeymoon period, Lopez and Affleck shopped around for a marital home and eventually settled on a five-acre Beverly Hills estate that cost $60.8 million. However, amid reports the marriage was unravelling, the 12-bedroom, 24-bathroom mansion was put back on the market in July with a price tag of $68 million.
Affleck has since bought a $20.5 million bachelor pad in the wealthy Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Lopez, meanwhile, is said to be house hunting. She sold a New York penthouse for $23 million in July, according to reports.
The tangled web of assets suggests the divorce could prove troublesome in court. Experts, however, are unconvinced that there is no prenup in place. Christopher Melcher, a celebrity divorce lawyer who has worked with clients including Katie Holmes and Kanye West, said he would be astonished if there was no premarital agreement.
“You might see a very young, naive couple with wealth marrying without a premarital agreement, but these are frequent flyers,” he said, noting that both Lopez and Affleck have been married before.
“They’re experienced spouses, so with plenty of legal advice, they would be going into the relationship with the understanding that it could fail. I see no way that they would get married without a premarital agreement.”
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The two-page form filed at Los Angeles court does not require Lopez to disclose a prenup, and attempting to infer details from it is “like reading tea leaves”, according to Melcher.
“It’s easy to get into a marriage and very difficult to get out of one,” he said, adding that under California law every asset they had acquired over the last two years would be considered “community property”.
“That would have to be divided equally,” Melcher said. “They would be putting themselves at massive risk by marrying without a premarital agreement.”
The fact that Lopez and Affleck have such resources could in some ways mitigate the risk, however. Melcher said wealthy couples tend to have bookkeepers, accountants and business advisers so financial transactions are carefully logged.
“It’s tracked,” he said. “So unlike many who go through a divorce who don’t have great records of what was earned and what was owned before marriage, this couple would have detailed financial information.
“It could help determine exactly what was earned during the marriage compared to what each brought into the marriage. So it would reduce the risk of unfairly dividing their property if there was no premarital agreement.”
Both have children from previous marriages. Lopez has 16-year-old twins with the singer Marc Anthony. Affleck, meanwhile, has three children from his marriage to the actress Jennifer Garner.
While contemplating the end of her fourth marriage, Lopez might find comfort in her This Is Me … Now: A Love Story film, in which she makes a prescient claim. Riding on the back of a motorcycle, Lopez laments: “Not all love stories have a happy ending.”