The Jennifer Affleck era is officially ending.
Jennifer Lopez, who legally changed her last name when she married Ben Affleck in 2022, wants to change it back. In her Aug. 20 divorce filing, in which she cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split, she requested her name be restored to “Jennifer Lynn Lopez.”
“It is common for a divorcing spouse to ask for her maiden name to be restored,” family law attorney Christopher C. Melcher of Walzer Melcher & Yoda told Yahoo Entertainment. “Jennifer has that right and checked the box on her divorce petition for this relief.”
As for the timing, “Her legal name will be restored to Jennifer Lopez when the judgment of divorce is entered,” Melcher added.
We just received the marriage certificate for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. “It was filed today by staff of the Clark County Clerk,” according to a county spokesperson. pic.twitter.com/Rt5jJvHatG
— David Charns (@davidcharns) August 1, 2022
That could technically be years — Lopez’s divorce from Marc Anthony and Affleck’s divorce from Jennifer Garner both took three years to finalize — but it’s really a behind-the-scenes name change anyway.
“Most people still believe she’s Jennifer Lopez,” divorce attorney Nancy Chemtob from Chemtob Moss Forman & Beyda said of the actress and singer’s stage name, which hasn’t changed. “It’s really just for her passport.”
It’s also for her divorce papers, which she filed under “Jennifer Lynn Affleck.” Though looking at her wildly scrawled signature, it’s hard to tell whether she signed them “Affleck” or “Lopez.”
Lopez waited a long time to become Mrs. Affleck. The Gigli and Jersey Girl co-stars were first together between 2002 to 2004. In a 2003 interview with Access Hollywood, Lopez talked about their recent engagement and plans to take the Good Will Hunting actor’s name.
Asked what her name would be one week after their nuptials (that never happened), the multihyphenate said she was going to keep Lopez professionally, “But my name will be Jennifer Affleck obviously.”
She added that her new name would be on her personal stationery as well.
Fast-forward to when Bennifer actually did marry in July 2022. Lopez confirmed they eloped in Las Vegas in a newsletter titled “WE DID IT!” which she signed “Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.” The internet had thoughts about her name change, including criticism in a New York Times opinion piece, which she later said she was surprised about.
“People are still going to call me Jennifer Lopez,” she told Vogue in November 2022. “But my legal name will be Mrs. Affleck because we’re joined together. We’re husband and wife. I’m proud of that. I don’t think that’s a problem.”
Asked if there was part of her that wanted Affleck to change his surname to Lopez, she said, “No! It’s not traditional. It doesn’t have any romance to it. It feels like it’s a power move, you know what I mean? I’m very much in control of my own life and destiny and feel empowered as a woman and as a person. I can understand that people have their feelings about it, and that’s OK, too. But if you want to know how I feel about it, I just feel like it’s romantic. It still carries tradition and romance to me, and maybe I’m just that kind of girl.”
The Vogue interview noted that the room in which the interview was conducted had a green neon sign that said “Mrs. Affleck” in cursive on the wall. She also wore a gold-plated “Affleck” necklace for a Valentine’s Day social media post this year — two months before the couple separated.
Lopez really is a “hopeless romantic,” as she’s called herself. Married four times, she previously changed her name at least one other time — when she married Marc Anthony in 2004. Amid their divorce in 2013, she also had her maiden name restored, so this is familiar ground in more ways than one.
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