Jane Fonda Ribs Jennifer Lopez For Her Excessive PDA With Ben Affleck: “It Feels Too Much Like You’re Trying To Prove Something”

Jane Fonda is rooting for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck‘s renewed romance, but that doesn’t mean she’s not going to tell it like it is.

The Grace and Frankie star, who is reuniting onscreen with Lopez after the two co-starred in 2005’s Monster-in-Law, is appearing in two parts of what Variety describes as Lopez’s “$20 million three-part multimedia project” about her “life as a serial romantic.” 

Fonda — who has been friends with Lopez since Monster-in-Law — offered her honest take on the pop star’s relationship in a conversation featured in The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a documentary that accompanies her Prime Video film This Is Me…Now: A Love Story.

The screen legend did not mince her words when she shared her thoughts on Lopez and Affleck’s high-profile second chance at love, and now we know just what she said, thanks to Variety‘s recent cover story.

According to the outlet, Fonda was approached to appear in This Is Me…Now, and although she ultimately opted to do so, she expressed concern about the constant publicity of Lopez and Affleck’s relationship while speaking to Lopez’s manager, Benny Medina, per Variety.

“I believe that everyone in the entire world is pulling for this relationship and this love,” Fonda informed Medina, who has managed Lopez for over two decades. “And the idea of how you present that is so sacrosanct, so important. It should be handled in a way that you aren’t overly flaunting it, so much so that it creates any form of criticism or resentment.”

In The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Fonda lets Lopez know that she doesn’t “entirely know why, but [she] feel[s] invested in [her] and Ben,” adding that she “really want[s] this to work,” per Variety.

“However, this is my concern,” she clarifies in the doc. “Like, it feels too much like you’re trying to prove something instead of just living it. You know, every other photograph is the two of you kissing and the two of you hugging.”

Lopez replies with a laugh, “That’s just us living our life.”

Fonda also reveals in the film that she “got real scared” when Affleck and Lopez made headlines after last year’s Grammys, where viewers alleged that Affleck appeared bored next to Lopez.

“I got real scared, you know, with all that shit about the Grammys and he looks unhappy and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?'” she recalls to Lopez, who tells her in the doc, “Nothing! He was like, ‘I’ve become the symbol of the beleaguered man.'”

Affleck has addressed the claims, insisting that he has a “very unhappy-looking resting sad face” during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March 2023.

Even more recently, Affleck poked fun at the same rumors in an extended cut of his Dunkin’ 2024 Super Bowl ad, claiming that he wasn’t “bored,” but rather “locked in.”

This is Me… Now: A Love Story premieres on Prime Video on Friday (Feb. 16). Watch the trailer above. The Greatest Love Story Never Told hits Prime Video Feb. 27.