Ben Affleck is reflecting on the “vicious” and racist words wielded at Jennifer Lopez when the two were together.
“You know, there’s always a story of the month, and me dating Jennifer Lopez happened to be that tabloid story at the time when that business grew exponentially,” the “Way Back” star, 48, told The Hollywood Reporter’s “Award Chatter” podcast this week.
The “Gigli” co-stars, dubbed “Bennifer” back in the day, went their separate ways in January 2004 but the Oscar winner still recalls the offensive ways in which the singer, 51, was discussed.
“People were so f–king mean about her — sexist, racist,” Affleck said. “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.”
Of course, he noted, the “Hustlers” star is now “lionized and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she f–king should be.”
Affleck also theorized that Lopez’s fellow Bronx natives likely “have a better shot … of ending up as like [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor on the Supreme Court than” becoming who the multi-hyphenate “is at 50 years old today.”
