Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez divorced last year, but when they split, many negative headlines followed. Most of these titles involved heavy speculations, where the authors inferred about what went wrong while dissecting who should get assigned the bulk of the blame in this split. Therefore, things in the media heated up quickly, but the positive captains were few and far between. Over a year later, Ben is living his life, celebrating his first birthday following his divorce from JLo. And, right on cue, captions started flooding the internet, showing how obsessed people still are regarding the uber-famous and how they celebrate milestones amidst their personal, broken storylines.
Why are we like this? Their divorce happened. Yet, when you search for how Ben celebrated his birthday this year, three out of four of the top headlines that appear involve JLo and a reference to their divorce. Would it not be kinder to move forward and let people live without further perpetuating the hamster wheel that aims to stigmatize divorces?
Ben Affleck celebrated his birthday following his divorce from JLo, but headlines still lumped their split into his big day
To celebrate his 53rd birthday, this A-lister took himself on a lunch date to Huckleberry Café in Santa Monica, California. At his side for this bakery and café stop were two of his three children, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13. It was quiet, simple, and everything that we know Ben fully appreciates. But it was also bittersweet, possibly, as Entertainment Tonight reported in 2020 that JLo and Ben often frequented this hotspot together.
Despite their shared affinities for tarts and the like, JLo was not in attendance for this event. No one is likely shocked to hear this, as she and Ben finalized their divorce earlier this year. But even still, her name managed to creep into most of his celebratory headlines. That’s gotta sting, eh, Batman from an extended universe?
That said, things become tricky once a celebrity marries someone just as famous, if not more, than they are. You see, lumping both parties’ names into one headline can help a platform extend its reach. And since money makes the world go ’round, here these outlets were, mentioning JLo even when JLo was not involved in this narrative.
Sadly, this backhanded slap harms readers, especially those walking through a divorce of their own. These fans need to see people moving forward, as they also must do following a divorce. So, if you ask us, this practice of using past dissolutions to sell a story should stop after a set amount of time. Overall, readers might prefer to see each party moving forward in peace, without any mention of their past.
Divorce is not the end of the world, despite constant headlines that refuse to let dissolution narratives go
Ben is a low-key kind of man. He tends to steer clear of drama, even though he, alongside his headline-making ex, constantly maintains all eyes on them. Therefore, his post-divorce birthday plans were likely not trying to create scandalous headlines, including this one.
Despite the pain that each of his divorces likely brought, Ben is showing us that it is okay to keep certain aspects of a failed romance alive. JLo liked this spot, yet Ben continues to walk through its doors. But, in doing so, further divorce-focused headlines sprouted. Meanwhile, readers are growing weary of their contempt-filled newsfeeds, especially those who have also walked through a messy divorce of their own.
Readers need to see that positive narratives can still happen following a divorce, without any of their exes’ names attached. So, instead of focusing on his split from last year in a post about his current birthday, why can we not just write about how Ben spent a quiet night out with his children? That was his goal, after all, as Ben is a private kind of man.
Listen, this world is already on fire. However, positive headlines could help it burn all the slower. So, repeat after me: divorces suck, yet many positive chapters remain after legally splitting a home. And it is these aspects that we would love to see the media focusing further attention on.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THAT HEADLINES HELP FURTHER STIGMATIZE DIVORCE? WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ ANYTHING ABOUT BEN OR JLO THAT DOES NOT ALSO REFERENCE THEIR EX?
