When Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck’s relationship with the paparazzi inspired her music video Jenny from the Block

When Jennifer came out with Jenny from the Block, it was an instant hit and is still remembered as one of the best songs by the artiste. The video was based on the theme of Ben and Jennifer losing out on their privacy due to the umpteen cameras that followed them everywhere.

The video had scenes of the couple chilling on a yacht, getting some lunch at a restaurant, stopping by at a gas station and it was shot from the point of view of the photographers who gave them absolutely no privacy. Even the small cracks of the window in their house were fair play by the photographers and Jenny from the Block captured that moment in time quite precisely.

Jennifer and Ben postponed their planned wedding in September 2003 with just four days’ notice. At the time, it was said that media scrutiny was a reason for the same. Months later, the couple broke up.

In 2014, almost a decade later, Jennifer called her break-up with Ben Affleck her “first real heartbreak.” In 2016, Jennifer opened up about the end of her relationship with Ben and said that they just happened to be together when the tabloid culture was starting to blow up and it affected them badly. She told People magazine at the time, “We didn’t try to have a public relationship. We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like ‘Oh, my God.’ It was just a lot of pressure.”

“I think different time, different thing, who knows what could’ve happened, but there was a genuine love there,” she added. And it looks like times have certainly changed!

The culture of the paparazzi has changed dramatically in Hollywood in comparison to the early aughts. The New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears depicts the kind of unabashed nature of invasion of privacy that was considered a part of being a celebrity back in those days and for Bennifer, it was something they had to go through as well. But it seems like the once ‘it’ couple has now found their rhythm in the new age of paparazzi.