Jennifer Lopez Explains Why She and Ben Affleck Eloped in Vegas Ahead of Planned Georgia Wedding

Prior to their nuptials in Georgia, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck eloped in Las Vegas, a spontaneous decision that derived from the stress of wedding planning.

Last July, Lopez and Affleck publicly announced that they flew to Vegas to get married, with Lopez sharing details of the day in her newsletter, On the JLo. “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,” Lopez wrote at the time.

The decision was she says, was in part, due to feeling some “PTSD” from the end of their engagement 20 years prior, the singer explained during a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday.

“We were planning to get married in August in Savannah. That was like the family’s going to be there, everybody’s going to be there and it was so stressful,” Lopez said.

“I don’t know if you know this but 20 years ago we were supposed to get married and it kind of all fell apart back then,” she continued. “And this time, we still — I absolutely did — had a little PTSD. And so I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’”

“We were so happy and, of course, it was happening, but I just felt like the wedding was so stressful and one day Ben just says, ‘Fuck it. Let’s just go to Vegas and get married tonight,’” she recalled.

The couple headed to Vegas after Lopez’s already scheduled rehearsal, with Affleck promising he would have “everything all set up.”

“And we did. It was amazing,” Lopez said. “It was the best night of our life.”

She later shared details about the Vegas wedding, noting that they arrived at the county clerk’s office just before midnight to get their wedding license. Lopez also revealed they declined the option of having an Elvis impersonator marry them. “They’re like, ‘OK great. We can’t get Elvis out of bed right now,’” Lopez quipped.

As Lopez prepares to release her new album This Is Me… Now, arriving 20 years after her This Is Me… Then album, she teased that the song “Midnight Trip to Vegas” was written after their elopement.

When reflecting on their previous engagement, Lopez quipped that Affleck had to propose again because she didn’t have her original engagement ring anymore. Lopez also admitted that she’s “learned to embrace” their “Bennifer” couple nickname.

“It wasn’t a bad thing even years ago but it became a thing where people made fun of it but then it continued throughout the years [and] other people were doing it.”