Without a tour, without a home and in the middle of a marital crisis: Jennifer Lopez’s bittersweet 55th birthday

Jennifer Lopez has, at least this Wednesday, reasons to celebrate: the singer, actress, producer and global star turns 55 on July 24. It’s a bit of a bittersweet event, however. The artist kicked off the celebrations this past weekend in the upscale The Hamptons with a party on Saturday and a lunch at an Italian restaurant on Sunday which, like everything about her in recent months, was also complicated: she was surrounded by her children, Max and Emme, her sister Lynda, a few friends like her manager Benny Medina, and the actress Sarah Jessica Parker... but her husband, the actor Ben Affleck, was not with her. It is a good example of how López is going through a complicated moment, both personally and vis-à-vis the public.

Lopez has been smiling in front of the cameras for months, putting on a good face in front of journalists, of fans who ask for autographs, in front of everyone who asks her how she is doing and what she is working on. But she always avoids the same question: how her marriage is going. Some reporters tried to pop the question during the promotion of her film Atlas at the end of May, but her co-star, actor Simu Liu, stopped them in their tracks. But it is difficult to hide. The marital crisis is no longer just a tabloid rumor, nor something seen in the star’s lately sad-looking face. The signs are too numerous and completely clear.

It was in mid-May when those who constantly follow the couple realized that they had not been seen in public, presumably immersed in their perennial cuddling, since March. The first big clue is that she attended the all-important Met gala, which she also sponsored, without him, in a gesture that surprised everyone. She posed on the steps of the New York museum all alone, thinner than ever (she confirmed it herself, stating that she exercises a lot because of the filming in which she is immersed) and only with a half-smile. That was the first moment in which the state of their relationship was questioned, and this many months later, it continues to be so.

It was at the end of that same month of May that one of her worst professional moments in years took place: the cancellation of her tour. In mid-February the artist released This Is Me... Now, a new album with 13 songs that made its lackluster way through the music charts. In addition, the album was accompanied by a kind of long video clip called This Is Me... Now: A Love Story where all the songs on the album were brought together into something like a musical film. After that came a documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, where Lopez also broke down her romance with Affleck. She invested more than $20 million in all of this, with little success among the public and even less among the critics. By the time the tour came around, she had only sold a handful of tickets, and stated that she was going to take some time to be with her kids, her family and her close friends. In addition to losing the public’s favor, once again, the marital crisis was visible.

Then the two of them began to be seen more often, but never in each other’s company. He, above all, was sighted in Los Angeles; she was seen in California, on the East coast, and abroad, like the time in June when she went to the Italian coast for a few days with a few friends. Meanwhile, moving trucks were removing Affleck’s personal belongings from the mansion they had bought together just a year ago in Beverly Hills, and moving them to another one in the Brentwood area, closer to his children and his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner.

It was precisely that house, which took them months to find and for which she sold her property in Bel-Air, that gave the definitive clue about a breakup that at this point only needs to be officially announced. That immense mansion of more 38,000 square feet on five acres with 12 bedrooms and 24 bathrooms is now up for sale. It is no longer just the mainstream press, but the real estate sites that are commenting on the property, which has been listed for $68 million, eight million more than what they paid a year ago. What was once the love nest of the newlyweds is today a handful of empty walls with its inhabitants, and their respective families, now living far away.

Lopez’s birthday coincides with a couple of events that makes the celebration even more complicated. July 17 marked two years since the couple got married by surprise in Las Vegas; a month later, at the end of August, they did it again, this time with friends and family at a big party at the actor’s ranch in Savannah, Georgia. But this year there was no wedding anniversary celebration. They haven’t even been together on her birthday. By the time the third date comes around, there may be nothing left to celebrate.

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