Jennifer Lopez confirmed that she and Ben Affleck tied the knot in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 16.
After court documents obtained by TODAY confirmed that the couple obtained a wedding license in Clark County, Nevada on July 16, Lopez revealed the romantic news in a statement which was provided by her representative to TODAY. Her message was also shared through her fan site as well.
“We did it,” she began the touching message to her fans. “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”
Lopez said the occasion was “exactly what we wanted,” explaining that the couple flew to Las Vegas and waited in line with four other couples to wait for their wedding license.
“Behind us two men held hands and held each other. In front of us, a young couple who made the three hour drive from Victorville on their daughter’s second birthday—all of us wanting the same thing— for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage,” she wrote.
The 52-year-old said that she and Affleck, 49, almost didn’t make it to the chapel by midnight, but they stayed open a few minutes late so they could take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible.
“So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives,” she wrote. “They even had Bluetooth for a (short) march down the aisle. But in the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.”
Lopez continued the sentimental post marking her marriage with Affleck nearly twenty years after they were first due to walk down the aisle, writing, “When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another. We had that. And so much more.”
She said it was the “best night of our lives” and thanked the Little Wedding Chapel for their help and involvement during their special evening.
“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love,’” she wrote. “We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to,” she said.
Lopez shares 14-year-old twins Emme Maribel Muñiz and Maximilian David Muñiz with her third husband, Marc Anthony while Affleck shares three children with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10.
"Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at twelve thirty in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with," she added. "Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things-and worth waiting for.”
Lopez sweetly signed the message, “With love, Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
The couple rekindled their love in 2021 and got engaged for the second time in April 2022, just shy of two decades after their initial romance after they met on the set of "Gigli" around 2002. By November of that year, they were engaged, but postponed their 2003 wedding and ultimately split in 2004, citing "excessive media attention."
“Before, we kind of put (our relationship) out there and we were naïve and it got a little trampled,” she told PEOPLE in February of their first romance. “(This time) we both were like, ‘Wow, we’re so happy and we don’t want any of that to come into play again.’
She aded, “We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience, we’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things. We’re so protective because it is such a beautiful time for all of us.”