Jennifer Lopez Gushes Over Romance With Ben Affleck: 'It's Sacred'

With the release of her highly anticipated movie Marry Me right around the corner, Jennifer Lopez is reflecting on the "sacred" romance in her own life. While chatting with People, Lopez gushed about the second chance at love she has with her former fiance Ben Affleck.

"I've never been better," Lopez told the outlet. "It's just that we're all in a very beautiful moment. I feel so lucky and happy and proud to be with him. It's a beautiful love story that we got a second chance."

When Lopez and Affleck first got together in the early 2000s, their relationship attracted intense media speculation, which both have admitted contributed to their split. "Before we kind of put [our relationship] out there and we were naïve and it got a little trampled," Lopez said, sharing they had a "little bit of fear" about history repeating itself.

"We both were like, 'Wow, we're so happy and we don't want any of that to come into play again,'" she continued. "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."

"I just feel very happy and lucky to be in a relationship that's happy and loving, and I want to do everything I can to protect that and keep it safe. It deserves that, it really does," Lopez explained. "We hold it sacred."

Lopez says she and Affleck know how lucky they are to have found each other again after all these years. "When you find somebody and you really, really love them and you get a second chance at that? That is a really rare, precious, beautiful thing and we don't take it for granted," she said.

Though they spent many years apart, starting families of their own, before coming together again last year, Lopez is happy with their path. "I'm so proud of him, I'm so proud of the man he's become that I've watched from afar," she said. "Being honest with each other, being loving, that's just the basis of everything. feel like he's at a place in his life where — just like how I feel about myself — it's been a journey of learning yourself and figuring yourself out, getting to a place where you feel really good on your own and who you are so you can be in a happy, healthy relationship."

"To see the person, the human being, the man that he is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is — he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be," she gushed.

Now Lopez knows she can share an important lesson with her kids about love and relationships. "What I can teach my children is that real love exists," she shared. "Some things can be forever, but it doesn't mean they just have a straight line."

Lopez and Affleck are looking forward to a long, happy future together. "I just want my future to be full of love and happiness, with my children and my partner," she said. "I think everybody just wants to be happy, with somebody to go on the journey with and grow old with, and I feel good about that right now."