‘SNL’ Recap: Jennifer Lopez Mouths ‘I Love You’ to Ben Affleck

Jennifer Lopez gave her husband, Ben Affleck , a subtle shout-out during her Saturday Night Live stint as musical guest.

“I love you, Ben,” Lopez, 54, seemingly mouthed onstage on Saturday, February 3, as The Bear star Ayo Edebiri thanked the cast and crew during the closing credits. The singer added, “I love you guys,” seemingly referring to her and Affleck’s blended family and blew them a kiss. (Lopez shares two children with ex-husband Marc Anthony, while Affleck, 51, coparents three kids with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.)

While Edebiri, 28, made her hosting debut on Saturday, Lopez was the musical guest. She performed “This Is Me … Now” and “Can’t Get Enough,” during the latter of which she was joined by rappers Latto and Redman.

Lopez has a lengthy history with Saturday Night Live, having appeared on the series for the first time as a musical guest in 2000. The following year, she returned to pull double duty as host and musical guest, and she played both roles again in 2010. Her most recent visit was in 2019 when she hosted.

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Affleck, meanwhile, is a member of the show’s famed Five-Timers Club, having previously hosted in 2000, 2004 (on two separate occasions), 2008 and 2013.

Lopez is currently promoting her ninth studio album, This Is Me … Now, as well as This Is Me … Now: The Film, which will both be released on February 16. The album is a sequel to 2002’s This Is Me … Then, a record that she dedicated to Affleck. The film — which Affleck cowrote alongside Lopez and Matt Walton — was described in a press release as a “narrative-driven, intimate, reflective, sexy, funny, fantastical and highly visual musical reimagining of her publicly scrutinized love life.”

Thank you, Ayo Edebiri, @JLo, @Latto, @therealredman, and @NikkiHaley! Goodnight! pic.twitter.com/dNH3n0vQc1

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 4, 2024

A source exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2023 that Lopez “wouldn’t have wished for anybody else” to collaborate with her on the new project, adding, “Nobody knows her better than Ben.”

Lopez “feels grateful” to have Affleck on her team for the film, according to the insider, as “he helped her feel safe to share parts of her nobody has ever known.”

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Alexa, play “Dear Ben” from Jennifer Lopez’s 2002 album, This Is Me … Then. Lopez and Ben Affleck were first linked in the early 2000s, with the Grammy nominee confirming their engagement to Diane Sawyer in November 2002. “It’s just a blanket, a quilt of rose petals, all over the whole entire house,” she recalled […]

Earlier that month, Lopez applauded Affleck as she reflected on the process. “We collaborate very well together, and nobody knows my story more than he does,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “So we were able to kind of sit down and really dig into it, in a way that I don’t think any other writer could’ve done with me.”

The couple reconnected in 2021 after breaking off their engagement in 2004. They went on to tie the knot in Las Vegas in July 2022 and held a second wedding the following month. Their blended family includes Lopez’s 15-year-old twins, Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex-husband Anthony, and Affleck’s three children — daughters Violet, 18, and Seraphina, 15, and son Samuel, 11 — with ex-wife Garner.

Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.