Jennifer Lopez promises new album about Ben Affleck love story is her most inspired music 'in 20 years'

Jennifer Lopez is ready to rewrite the narrative with a fresh perspective on her epic, decades-spanning love story with Ben Affleck.

The singer and actress recently opened up about the process behind her upcoming album, This Is Me... Now, her first non-soundtrack record of original solo material since 2014's A.K.A., promising that her new music is the most inspired material she's released since her 2002 LP, This Is Me... Then.

"I haven't really made an album like this in 20 years, is the truth. The last time when I did, This Is Me… Then, is the last time I remember doing an album like this, where I was in the studio every single day writing very single song, doing every single thing," the 53-year-old star told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on Friday's episode of Live With Kelly & Mark, explaining how the albums captured a different essence of her relationship with Affleck. "I was very inspired at that time when I wrote This Is Me… Then. Anybody who knows about that album [knows] it really was about me falling in love at that time with the love of my life, and now, 20 years later, who would've ever thought we would've [gotten back together]?"

Known affectionately as "Bennifer," Lopez and Affleck had a romance that dominated the media throughout the early aughts after they met on the set of their rom-com Gigli in 2001 and eventually got engaged at the end of the following year. This Is Me... Then chronicled their courtship, with Affleck appearing in the music video for the album's lead single, "Jenny From the Block," and Lopez even included a song titled "Dear Ben" on its track list.

The pair eventually announced their separation in 2004, before rekindling their relationship in May 2021 and then marrying in July 2022.

"And so, that album kind of captured that moment in time, and I was very inspired to go back in and write more music for the first time, in a long time," Lopez said of her upcoming LP, which contains a track titled "Dear Ben Pt. II," she revealed late last year. "So, I decided to call it This Is Me… Now."

The release date for This Is Me... Now has not been announced, but Lopez confirmed that it will drop in summer 2023.

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