Ben Affleck’s father, Timothy, has revealed that he didn’t know that his son got engaged to Jennifer Lopez until he read about it “on the internet”.
Timothy, 78, discussed Ben’s engagement during a recent interview with The Sun, acknowledging that it has been a while since he’s seen his son. However, he said that he still believes that Ben and the Marry Me star are having a “good time”.
“I haven’t talked to them in ages, but if everything one reads on the internet is true, they’re having a good time together,” Timothy said.
“He’s quite busy with all of his new found activities. He’s been working a lot, which no one seems to care about,” he added. “They care about romance.”
He noted that while he hasn’t “been in touch recently” with Ben, they still “write periodically, so it’s okay”.
While Timothy hasn’t seen his son recently, he said that he had the opportunity to see his grandchildren, “a few months back”. Ben shares three children, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner.
During the interview, Timothy was asked what he thought about Lopez, as she and the Justice League star dated from 2002 to 2004 and were previously engaged in 2003, but ultimately called the wedding off.
According to Timothy, his son’s fiancé is not only a “very special woman,” but she’s also “very talented”.
“I did meet Jennifer when they first dated,” he explained. “There’s a lot I admire about her, she’s quite a special woman. “What I like most about her is that she did it all herself, she brought herself up on so many different levels, she’s obviously very talented.”
He emphasised how much of a “hard worker” Lopez is, noting how much she “deserves everything she gets”.
“She’s one of the people who really worked at it and hustled,” he continued. “There was no nepotism [or] ‘who do you know’ bulls**t.”
“She’s a hard worker and I admire that,” he added. “I think she deserves everything she gets.”
When asked how he felt about Lopez becoming his daughter-in-law, Timothy said: “That’s fine by me! I’m happy about it.”
Although he doesn’t know any specific details about Ben and Lopez’s wedding plans, Timothy said he doesn’t want a “repeat” of their previous “arrangements,” which would have been his son’s first wedding to Lopez.
“I don’t know anything about wedding plans or anything like that,” he said. “But I don’t imagine there will be a repeat of the last wedding arrangements [when it got called off]. The last time the media went berserk, they just went crazy and I’m sure that had an effect, it would have an effect on anyone really.”
“But I imagine they can handle it more now, I hope so, Ben’s getting up there, he’s ‘pushing 50,’” he added.
Lopez announced her engagement on 8 April in her “On The JLo” newsletter, where she sent her subscribers a video of herself looking down at a green diamond ring.
In a recent newsletter, the 52-year-old singer revealed that Affleck proposed to her while she was taking a bubble bath, describing the proposal as the “most romantic thing ever”.
“I was smiling so big and tears were coming down my face, feeling so incredibly happy and whole,” she wrote about the proposal. “It was nothing fancy at all, but it was the most romantic thing I could’ve ever imagined.”
“Just a quiet Saturday night at home, two people promising to always be there for each other. Two very lucky people. Who got a second chance at true love,” she added.
