Ben Affleck is opening up about the early 2000s when he and Jennifer Lopez were Hollywood’s It Couple. The duo–formerly known by the moniker “Bennifer”–captivated the world with their glamourous and somewhat surprising courtship.

But the relationship eventually unraveled under the intense pressure of public scrutiny.

In a recent podcast appearance, Affleck revealed just how terrible and racially-charged the criticism on their relationship was.

They were wrong. We are seeing the consequences of such poor mindsets and how they've infected our country. We must keep evolving until we are all respected equally.

— Mary Song (@MarySon15965746) January 16, 2021

“People were so f–king mean about her,” he said on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. “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.”

“At first At first it was like Dick and Liz [Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor], it was this sort of infatuation: ‘What an interesting couple‘. And then there was a ton of resentment. A ton of resentment against me, a ton of resentment against Jennifer.”

He went on to explain that what was so fascinating about the relationship to the general public–namely, how they had such vastly different backgrounds–wasn’t something he thought twice about.

Affleck went on to sing JLo’s praises, saying that she deserves all of the praise and adulation she now receives.

This week, Ben Affleck talked about his relationship with former fiancee Jennifer Lopez and how badly the media treated her back then. This got me thinking about the epicenter of their relationship, "Jenny From the Block," and how it hits different now. https://t.co/kcHyVnpUBC

— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) January 17, 2021

“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 said.

“She was very much like the kind of girl I went to high school with,” he explained. “It was a very socioeconomically mixed, ethnically mixed place–those kinds of differences that just seem to shock America were meaningless to me.”

“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…just on a pure odds level.”

He concluded: “I never met anyone who worked harder than Jennifer Lopez.” On that, we can definitely agree.

Jennifer Lopez has also been candid about how traumatic the public response was back then to her relationship with Ben Affleck.

“I was eviscerated,” she told Vanity Fair in 2017 about the media coverage of her and Ben’s relationship we well as their much-maligned film, “Gigli”. “I lost my sense of self, questioned if I belonged in this business, thought maybe I did suck at everything. And my relationship [with Affleck] self-destructed in front of the entire world. It was a two-year thing for me until I picked myself up again.”

But now, it appears they’re both in happier places. Ben Affleck has two children with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner and JLo is happily engaged to Alex Rodriguez.

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Yes, welcome to 2021. A year whose heels only just hit the ground when Republican extremists terrorized the Capitol building leading to Donald Trump’s impeachment… And oh yeah saw actor Armie Hammer being accused of liking cannibalism. Yes, we said it cannibalism, ya know, an appetite for eating your own kind?

Gossip surrounding the Call Me By Your Name actor and his sex life has become so salacious that the actor announced that he was stepping back from an upcoming movie with Jennifer Lopez.

Armie Hammer announced this week that he will no longer star in the upcoming movie, Shotgun Wedding alongside Jennifer Lopez.

The brewing scandal involving Hammer includes alleged leaked messages related to his sex life.

The leaked messages alleged that Hammer has a thing for fantasies related to rape and cannibalism and was leaked by an anonymous social media account user with the name House of Effie. According to the account, Hammer told a woman that he was “100 percent a cannibal.” Another message suggested that Hammer liked the taste of blood.

“I’m not responding to these bulls–t claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic,” Hammer said in a statement to Page Six. “Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I’m grateful to them for that.”

Still, the show will go on for Lopez who will star in the film being directed by “Pitch Perfect” director Jason Moore.

The film will be distributed in the US by Lionsgate and will stream internationally on Amazon Prime. According to Deadline, Shotgun Wedding was meant to see Lopez and Hammer “play a couple who gather their lovable but very opinionated families for the ultimate destination wedding just as they begin to get cold feet about their relationship. If that wasn’t enough of a threat to the celebration, suddenly everyone’s lives are in danger when the entire party is taken, hostage.”

Despite the unconfirmed gossip around him, Hammer still has upcoming projects. These include the thriller, “The Billion Dollar Spy,” and a sequel to the 2017 hit “Call Me By Your Name” in which he played Oliver, a handsome doctoral student.

Its not the first time gossip around Hammer’s love life has caused a stir. In a 2013, Playboy interview Hammer described himself as a “dominant lover” and enjoyed “grabbing women by the neck and hair.”

He later told E! News of the candid Playboy interview, “Don’t drink during an interview.”

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