The couple purchased their Beverly Hills home in May 2023, and both Lopez and Affleck have worked on numerous other endeavors during their marriage
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have considerable assets that will have to be dealt with amid their divorce.
On Aug. 20, Lopez, 55, filed to end her marriage to Affleck, 52, after less than two years as husband and wife. In the filing, obtained by PEOPLE, Lopez listed their date of separation as April 26, and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.
Lopez’s filed without using a lawyer, an act known as pro se, in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
She requested no spousal support for either party, and sections about community and separate property indicate that the exes didn’t tie the knot with a prenuptial agreement in place.
“The exact nature and extent of separate property assets and obligations are unknown to Petitioner at this time. Petitioner reserves the right to amend this Petition when same is ascertained,” reads the filing.
In another portion, it’s noted that the “exact nature” of their community and quasi-community assets and obligations are “unknown” and “will be determined.” The papers also indicate they’ll split attorney’s fees, and that Lopez wants her last name restored.
Here’s what could be at stake for the former couple, who wed in July 2022, as they divorce reportedly without a prenup.
In May 2023, Lopez and Affleck purchased their 38,000-square-foot estate in Beverly Hills for $60,805,000. The home was listed for $68 million in July.
Matrimonial partner at Blank Rome LLP Marilyn Chinitz, who isn’t connected to the case, says their shared assets will ultimately be split. “They’ve been together for two years, and whatever they have earned during those two years is community [property], which means that it will be equally divided if they earned anything.”
Separate property, by definition in California, is whatever each party owns (or owes in debt) individually from before the marriage and after the separation. It also includes any gifts or inheritance.
While Lopez and Affleck will have to disclose their separate property assets according to documents obtained by PEOPLE, it is their community property that will have to be divided equally among them in the divorce.
For Lopez, this potentially includes her earnings from business ventures like her low-calorie alcohol line Delola, which she launched in 2023.
She also starred in numerous films, including Shotgun Wedding, The Mother and Atlas, not to mention her This Is Me… Now: A Love Story movie as well as the accompanying documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which was produced by Affleck’s production company, Artists Equity.
In February 2024, as part of the multi-media blitz for her project, Lopez released the album This Is Me… Now, and she later canceled her summer concert tour this year to spend time with family.
Lopez is currently set to produce the Netflix series adaptation of Emily Henry’s popular novel Happy Place alongside one of the Bridgerton co-EPs, who will serve as showrunner. (Notably, Lopez struck a first-look deal with Netflix in 2021, which predates the marriage.)
The star is also paid as a global brand ambassador for Intimissimi and Coach, and has her own beauty line, JLo Beauty.
Similar to Lopez, Affleck is involved in numerous business endeavors that potentially fall within the timespan of their marriage, as well.
In 2022, he and longtime pal Matt Damon founded Artists Equity, which, in addition to producing Lopez’s documentary, also produced movies Air, which Affleck starred in, and the recent film The Instigators.
Under the production company, Affleck and Lopez’s entanglements amplify, as upcoming projects from Artists Equity include Unstoppable and Kiss of the Spiderwoman, both of which star Lopez. She has a producing credit on the latter.
The company is also responsible for producing three of Affleck’s popular commercials with Dunkin’, including his drive-thru spot for the 2023 super bowl as well as his 2024 DunKings viral hit featuring Damon and Tom Brady.
Affleck’s other movies during the duration of his marriage to Lopez include Hypnotic, and he just wrapped filming on The Accountant 2.
Still, even without a prenuptial agreement, which Chinitz says is “extremely unusual,” she notes in rare occasions high-wealth individuals can secure their assets in a different manner.
“The only time that you see people not having a prenup is when they’ve put most of their assets in trust for their children, and those trusts have been established and they wouldn’t be part of the community,” Chinitz says.
Lopez shares twins Max and Emme, 16, with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Meanwhile, Affleck shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
