Jennifer Lopez kicked off her highly anticipated Las Vegas residency with humour, honesty and a refreshingly self-aware look at her romantic past that included a cheeky nod to ex-husband
Ben Affleck, which had the audience laughing along with her.
On Tuesday, December 30, the global superstar opened her Up All Night residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, marking her return to the Vegas stage nearly a decade after her last run at Planet Hollywood. As she addressed the crowd, Lopez reflected on how much life and love has shifted since then.
“It’s such a huge honour to be asked back,” she told fans. “Do you know that it’s been 10 years, almost 10 years to the day, since my last residency here? That went by in a blink, didn’t it?”
Then came the punchline. “And in that time, I’ve only been married twice,” Lopez quipped, instantly drawing laughter from the audience. Moments later, she corrected herself with playful exaggeration. “That’s not true. It was only once. It felt like twice.”
The crowd erupted again as Lopez leaned into the joke, adding, “I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. It’s over and we just… it’s fine,” punctuating the moment with a theatrical kick as the drummer crashed a cymbal for comic effect.
Jennifer Lopez' public love story
The comment was widely seen as a nod to her recent divorce from Ben Affleck. Lopez and the
Argo actor first dated from 2002 to 2004 after meeting on the set of Gigli, before famously reuniting nearly two decades later. The couple eloped in July 2022 and later hosted a larger wedding celebration in Georgia. Lopez filed for divorce in August 2024, exactly two years after that ceremony.
Despite the split, Lopez made it clear that she is entering a new chapter with optimism. “The good news is that I’m learning and I’m growing and we’re in our happy era,” she told the audience. “I’m in my happy era.”
Jennifer Lopez on growth, grace and staying amicable
Following their separation, Lopez has spoken candidly about the experience. In a September interview on CBS News Sunday Morning, she described the wisdom she gained as “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Because it changed me,” she said. “It helped me grow in a way that I needed to grow.” That sense of maturity has been reflected in how Lopez and Affleck have navigated life post-divorce. The former couple have remained amicable, reuniting publicly at the October premiere of Lopez’s film Kiss of the Spider Woman, which Affleck produced.
They were also spotted shopping together in Los Angeles with Affleck’s 13-year-old son Samuel just days before Christmas. Affleck shares three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, while Lopez is mother to 17-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
A deeper reflection on resilience
During the same opening-night performance, Lopez also revisited her split from Anthony, using the moment to share a deeply personal story about resilience, motherhood and self-belief. “I do love to dance,” she said. “And if you take anything away from this show tonight, I hope it’s this. It was after my third divorce that I really started getting good at it.”
Recalling a difficult period in her life, Lopez spoke about being a newly single mother to young twins and turning to guidance from late author Louise Hay. “She asked me, ‘Jennifer, you’re a dancer, right?’” Lopez told the crowd. “‘When you get the steps wrong, what do you do?’ And I said, ‘I just keep going until I get them right.’”
Hay’s advice stayed with her was to always keep dancing. “And I wish the same for you,” Lopez concluded. “No matter what life throws at you, that you dance and you dance and you dance again and again.”
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