When reflecting on his past high-profile relationship with the 'On the Floor' hitmaker, the 'Gone Girl' star believes his ex-fiancee deserves to be 'lionized and respected' for what she accomplished.

• Jan 15, 2021

AceShowbiz - Ben Affleck has taken a look back at his past romance with Jennifer Lopez. The Nick Dunne depicter in "Gone Girl", who got engaged to the "On the Floor" hitmaker back in 2002, reflected on his past high-profile relationship in a new interview, and described the "sexist [and] racist" treatment his ex-fiancee received back then.

The 48-year-old actor walked down memory lane while guest appearing on The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast. "People were so f**king mean about her - sexist, racist. Ugly, vicious s**t was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said," he said of his ex-fiancee.

"Now it's like, she's lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished - as well she f**king should be!" he continued. "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."

Ben also opened up about how tabloids created demands over his relationship with the "Hustlers" actress. "There's always a story of the month, and me dating [her] happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially ... they needed something to write about and we were that thing," he recalled.

"Still, to this day, [some] will go, 'I see you out there in the paparazzi and the pictures!' It's like, 'Yes, I left my house and took out the trash," he went on sharing. "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."

Ben and Jennifer, who fell in love on the set of "Gigli" movie, began dating in early 2000s. They got engaged in 2002 and planned to tie the knot in 2003. However, the former couple called it quits in January 2004. The "Argo" star moved on by marrying actress Jennifer Garner in 2005, while the "Let's Get Loud" songstress wed Marc Anthony, whom she divorced in 2014.