Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck ‘Sunk a Fortune Into Building’ Their Brand: ‘Walking Away From Billions’

As Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck continue to navigate their ongoing marital woes, letting go of their Bennifer branding may be hardest of all.

Fans of the “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” singer, 54, and Good Will Hunting star, 51, were overjoyed when the couple rekindled their romance in April 2021 — 20 years after they met on set of their 2003 film Gigli, began dating and became known as “Bennifer.”

However, In Touch was first to report that the two are “headed for a divorce” and that Ben moved out of their martial home. Now, an insider exclusively tells In Touch that the Hollywood power couple has got a lot to untangle.

“They’ve sunk a fortune into building up this joint brand,” the insider says. “So much time and money has been spent preparing all these different projects that they were both so gung-ho on just a few months ago, and now it’s pretty much all down the drain because everything was based on their Bennifer brand.”

Unstoppable, the upcoming movie starring J. Lo that Ben is coproducing, is already shot and in post-production, so the question now is how they’re going to promote the film.

With the movie slated to be released this year, it would be terrible timing for Ben and J. Lo to reunite for a press tour. (In recent days, both have been seen without their respective wedding rings on.) And, according to the source, the new film “isn’t the only creative project they were planning together.”

The insider reveals, “They were privately funding certain projects they really believed in and had all kinds of things lined up, and now they’re having to pull out, which is letting a lot of people down and leaving a ton of money on the table.”

According to the source, J. Lo “was even working on their own homeware line, which is obviously not going forward now, so all the time and energy on legal fees and design are a total wash.”

Adds the insider, “So many investments are now having to be dissolved, and that’s a big part of why this is taking so long, despite the fact that it’s very much over.”

Ben and J. Lo are also thinking about their blended family — the Oscar winner shares Violet, 18, Fin, 15, and Samuel, 12, with ex Jennifer Garner while the Marry Me star shares 16-year-old twins Max and Emme with Marc Anthony. But the source insists that “they’ve also got to detangle this money situation.”

J. Lo “really thought” she and Ben “were going to be the biggest power couple in Hollywood,” says the source, “and to be fair they really could have been if they’d stuck together. But now they’re walking away from billions, or so she’s saying.”

While they have gone on to make several public outings together, neither Ben nor J. Lo have publicly commented on the status of their marriage. However, when Ben appeared in the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, released in February, he addressed some mixed feelings.

“Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,'” he says in the doc. “Then I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, ‘Well, I don’t like the water.'”

Ultimately, he explained, “We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.”