Ben Affleck Denied That Gwyneth Paltrow Was Horrified by His Engagement to Jennifer Lopez

When Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez met in 2001, she was married to Cris Judd and he was recently out of a relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow. Affleck said he maintained a friendly relationship with Paltrow after their split, but some sources speculated that she was not happy with her ex’s new relationship. Affect shared what Paltrow told him about his new romance.

At the end of 2002, rumors circulated that Affleck and Paltrow had been caught in a compromising position in a bathroom in Manhattan. The column that circulated the rumor did not mention their names, but it was clear to Affleck that it was about him. He denied that it was true, though.

This is clearly about me,” he told Vanity Fair. “There’s no truth in it whatsoever. Gwyneth is in London. The last time I saw her was at the memorial service for her father. While we’re friends, you would not find us in any compromising position.”

Other stories claimed that Paltrow found Affleck’s engagement horrifying. These rumors got back to Paltrow who, Affleck said, wanted to make sure Lopez didn’t believe them.

“Gwyneth is one of the most gracious and well-mannered people I’ve ever met,” Affleck said, “and when I saw her at the, what’s it called, the shivah, in the middle of what had to be the worst time of her life, she said, ‘You know that’s not true. Please tell her it’s not true. I wish you guys only the best.’”

Affleck and Paltrow dated on and off between 1997 and 2000. In an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Paltrow compared her relationships with Affleck and Brad Pitt. When host Alex Cooper asked which of her ex-boyfriends was better in bed, Paltrow said it was hard to say.

“Brad was like the sort of major chemistry, love of your life, kind of, at the time and then Ben was, like, technically excellent,” she said (per People). “I can’t believe my daughter is listening to this!”

After Paltrow and Affleck split for good, they remained friends. She said she always liked him but understood he wasn’t in the right place to be in a relationship.

“He’s super intelligent and really, really talented and he’s funny,” she told Howard Stern. “But he wasn’t in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend.”

While Affleck said Paltrow harbored no ill will toward Lopez, she may have had reason to. In 1998, Paltrow gave a controversial interview with Movieline in which she gave her unfiltered opinion on many of her peers, Paltrow among them. Lopez disregarded Paltrow’s talent as an actor.

Tell me what she’s been in? I swear to God, I don’t remember anything she was in,” Lopez said. “Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work.”

Just one year after this, Paltrow won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Shakespeare in Love.