Jennifer Lopez cancels summer tour amid rumours of Ben Affleck split
LOS ANGELES – Jennifer Lopez said on May 31 she was cancelling her American summer tour to spend more time with her family, as rumours circulate over a split with actor-husband Ben Affleck.
The announcement from the American singer-actress and her promoter also comes after reports that sales for the multi-date event were flagging.
In her newsletter On The JLo, which she sent to fans on May 31, she revealed the concert tour – her first in five years – was off.
“I am completely heartsick and devastated about letting you down. Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary,” Lopez wrote.
“I promise I will make it up to you and we will all be together again. I love you all so much. Until next time...”
The e-mail also included a message from tour promoter Live Nation noting that “Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends”, and that tickets bought through Ticketmaster would be refunded automatically.
The This Is Me ... Live tour was scheduled to kick off on June 26 in Orlando, Florida, and run through August, with shows across the United States and parts of Canada.
The cancellation comes after a number of adjustments and curtailments were made to the tour, including slicing dates off and rebranding it as a greatest hits tour, rather than one focused on her latest album, This Is Me ... Now, which was released in February.
Lopez also stars in the sci-fi action thriller Atlas, which has been the No. 1 film on Netflix in the United States since its debut on May 24.
But the spotlight is on Lopez and Affleck’s apparent marital strain, which is dominating the tabloid and entertainment press.
Reports suggest the pair – who married in 2022, almost two decades after their first relationship fell apart – have been living separately in Los Angeles.
People Magazine said relations between the Good Will Hunting (1997) star, 51, and the On The Floor (2011) singer, 54, were strained because of their different approaches to celebrity.
“She likes to open her heart to her fans and to the world,” the American magazine quoted an unnamed source saying.
“He is more introspective and private. This has been difficult day-to-day.”
The pair first met on the set of the widely panned movie Gigli, released 2003.
They became a media sensation as they dated, but postponed their planned 2003 nuptials, then announced their relationship was over in early 2004.
“Bennifer” – the couple’s public nickname from their first highly publicised relationship – set the internet alight in 2021 when photos of them together again began circulating.
They wed in a small ceremony in Nevada in July 2022, and then had a star-studded ceremony at Affleck’s lavish waterfront compound in the south-eastern US state of Georgia in August.
The couple reportedly bought a US$60 million (S$81.2 million) home together in Los Angeles in 2023. – AFP
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