Monday, December 23, 2024

As JLo flies economy on scaled-back trip to Italy, is singer tightening her purse strings after cancelling her tour and spending $20m of her own money on ‘vanity project’?

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Over her 25 years in showbusiness, she’s become well-known as one of the biggest divas in the industry, often pictured on a yacht or private jet.

But Jennifer LopezĀ seems to be paring back her extravagant lifestyle somewhat – ditching her heels for comfy trainers and tracksuits and trading private megayachts for more practical hotels.

The Let’s Get Loud singer, 54, who has been rumoured to be facing both financial and marital issues, was seen this weekend flying from Naples to Paris on a budget KLM flight. Prices start from ā‚¬134 (Ā£113/$143).

While she’s usually pictured clad in designer gear, the Maid in Manhattan star instead opted for a lowkey white jumper and jogging bottoms while sitting at a window seat.

So is she returning to her roots as Jenny From the Block in an attempt to salvage her marriage with famously fame-shy husband Ben Affleck?

Jennifer Lopez seems to be paring back her extravagant lifestyle somewhat – ditching her heels for comfy trainers and tracksuits and trading private megayachts for more practical hotels (pictured in New York in April)

Critics have blasted Jennifer Lopez's new film This In Me... Now: A Love Story as a 'self-financed and resolutely, painfully autobiographical' vanity project. She is pictured with husband Ben Affleck at the premiere

Critics have blasted Jennifer Lopez’s new film This In Me… Now: A Love Story as a ‘self-financed and resolutely, painfully autobiographical’ vanity project. She is pictured with husband Ben Affleck at the premiere

Sources have claimed that that cause of the couple’s martial woes have been ‘exacerbated’ by rows over their finances.Ā 

According to Us Weekly, the couple hit a turbulent patch over their differing lifestyles, with reports stating that Ben has moved out of the couple’s $60 millionĀ Los AngelesĀ mansion and into a rented $100,000-a-month property in Brentwood.

Ā Insisting the ‘the honeymoon phase has worn off’, the source said their differing approaches to both finances and parenting have taken a toll on their relationship.

Her budget flight comes just days after she was seen enjoying a solo trip in ItalyĀ without her husband and with her friends instead. A similar – if not stripped back – version of her PDA-filled 2021 trip with Ben.Ā 

While in 2021 Bennifer stayed on a $130M dollar mega yacht and flew privately to cruise around the Med, this time J Lo – rumoured to be worth $400 million –Ā  appeared to be splashing less cash.

Snaps from the 2021 trip saw the rekindled couple giggling as Jennifer sat on her beau Ben Affleck’s lap in a restaurant, huddling up together on a yacht, and smooching ardently in public.

Her budget flight comes just days after she was seen enjoying a solo trip in Italy without her husband and with her friends instead. A similar - if not stripped back - version of her PDA-filled 2021 trip with Ben

Her budget flight comes just days after she was seen enjoying a solo trip in Italy without her husband and with her friends instead. A similar – if not stripped back – version of her PDA-filled 2021 trip with Ben

Most recently, she and Affleck are also trying to quietly offload their $60 million marital home in Beverly Hills after purchasing the property together just last year

Most recently, she and Affleck are also trying to quietly offload their $60 million marital home in Beverly Hills after purchasing the property together just last year

In recent months, Lopez has been facing incessant rumours of an ‘imminent’ divorce in her two-year marriage with Affleck.

The pair have also been living separately for several weeks now after it was previously reported that the Gone Girl star has been staying at a $100,000-a-month rental property in Brentwood.Ā 

Jennifer also self-financed her documentary accompanying the album – which debuted at number 38 on the Billboard chart.

She shelled out a staggering $20million (Ā£16million) to fund the film which was released on Amazon Prime Video in February.Ā 

‘Everybody thought I was crazy when I said I would do it. We did have financing, and then that fell out,’ Lopez told The Hollywood Reporter.

‘They pulled out at the last minute, and then it was that moment where you go, OK, do we just make a video or do we go ahead and do this thing?’ she said in an interview alongside her Nuyorican Prods. producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.Ā 

In the midst of the drama, she announcedĀ the cancellation of her This Is Me… Live tour, which was set to kick off in July just ahead of her 55th birthday.

In late May, she cancelled her greatest hits concert tourĀ and took time off ‘to be with her children, family and close friends,’ in an exclusive report by DailyMail.com.

In March, Jennifer suddenly cancelled several dates from her tour for seemingly no reason, before the entire tour itself is being rebranded.

The 54-year-old singer announced the This is Me… Now tour in February – her first US tour in five years – to support her new album This Is Me… Now.

It was then revealed that the tour will be re-titled from This Is Me… Now: The Tour to This Is Me… Live, focusing more on her greatest hits.Ā 

Jennifer also self-financed her documentary accompanying the album - which debuted at number 38. She shelled out a staggering $20million (Ā£16million) to fund the film which was released on Amazon Prime Video in February

Jennifer also self-financed her documentary accompanying the album – which debuted at number 38. She shelled out a staggering $20million (Ā£16million) to fund the film which was released on Amazon Prime Video in February

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck listed their Bel Air, California mega mansion three weeks ago for $65M, but it still has not sold even though the price is fair, according to TMZ (seen in happier days in 2021)

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck listed their Bel Air, California mega mansion three weeks ago for $65M, but it still has not sold even though the price is fair, according to TMZ (seen in happier days in 2021)

Sources previously told Billboard that, ‘the dates were scotched due to routing issues but that new shows have been added and will be announced soon.’

Most recently, she and Affleck are also trying to quietly offload their $60 million marital home in Beverly Hills after purchasing the property together just last year.Ā 

In addition to her tour cancellation, she also took out a nice chunk of change and paid $20 million out of her own pocket to fund her documentary.

The Greatest Love Story Never Told is one component of a self-financed, three-part multimedia project about her and her husband’s love story,Ā which was released on Amazon Prime Video in February.

In spite of it all, her film career is still going strong as she is set to promote two upcoming films with her husbandĀ as Affleck is a producer on both Unstoppable and Kiss of the Spider Woman.Ā 

Her Netflix sci-fi action movie Atlas is also a chart-topping success on the streaming service’s platformĀ despite being panned by critics.

Her travels come over a week after she was last pictured on her way for a public meet-up with Affleck.

The mother-of-two’s campaign for her latest album, This is Me… Now,Ā  is self-financed – at a striking cost of $20million.

The album, which is heavily-inspired by her rekindled romance with Affleck, has been accompanied by a a visual film, This is Me Now… A Love StoryĀ  (dubbed ‘bonkers‘ and a ‘over-the-top delight for fans’ by critics).

An Amazon Prime documentary titledĀ The Greatest Love Story Never Told, about her romance with the Batman star, also accompanied the release. The moniker is an interesting choice, given the couple called off their first wedding due to ‘excessive media attention’.?Ā Ā 

Her appearance in the documentary, has seen her dubbed ‘out of touch’ and ‘delusional’ by some fans. In one – widely reshared –Ā  Ā moment J Lo plays with her hair in the mirror while reminiscing about her upbringing in the Bronx, a famously working-class neighbourhood of New York.

‘I like taking my hair out like this,’ she says.Ā 

‘It reminds me, like, when I was 16 in the Bronx, running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to f***ing be wild and no limits, all dreams.’

Critics too have met the documentary – and album – with a lukewarm response.

Jennifer and Ben were famously engaged in the early 2000s before breaking up, only to reunite - and later marry - in July 2022. J Lo is pictured at the premiere of Atlas

Jennifer and Ben were famously engaged in the early 2000s before breaking up, only to reunite – and later marry – in July 2022. J Lo is pictured at the premiere of Atlas

‘For all her promises to show us the real her, it’s a struggle to see it in the slick and sexy production,’ The Independent said. The GuardianĀ added it ‘offers very little outside of simply soundtracking a cosy night in chez Bennifer’ adding it was ‘hopelessly middle of the road’.

Jennifer and Ben were famously engaged in the early 2000s before breaking up, only to reunite – and later marry – in July 2022.

Their initial two-year romance was highly publicised and the intense scrutiny on their relationship was difficult for the couple to handle.

Jennifer said: ‘Ben and I broke up three days before our wedding and we crumbled under the pressure. You think you’re doing ok so you shrug it off.

The On The Floor hitmaker also got candid about the pain she felt when the relationship came to an end.

She said: ‘I had a broken heart once I lost the love of my life, my best friend, and I couldn’t talk for so many years and that was the hardest part.

‘I used to think it was everyone else who was broken, now I think it was just me.’

The couple’s love story started in 2002 when they dated while filming the movie Jersey Girl.

The couple got engaged near the end of 2002 but broke the engagement in late 2003 before ending their relationship entirely in 2004. J Lo is pictured

The couple got engaged near the end of 2002 but broke the engagement in late 2003 before ending their relationship entirely in 2004. J Lo is pictured

They became engaged the following year but broke up in 2004.

While navigating their reconciliation , two decades following their first engagement, the two-time Oscar winner Ben admitted he had zero interest in becoming a fixture on his wife’s social media accounts.

‘Getting back together, I said, ‘Listen, one of the things I don’t want is a relationship on social media,’ the actor recalled.

‘Then I sort of realised it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, “Well, I don’t like the water.”‘

He continued: ‘We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise.’

Ultimately, Jennifer respected his wishes, and has only posted a small handful of snaps featuring him, including a raunchy shirtless photo last Father’s Day and a sweet video of them singing Sam Cooke’s (What A) Wonderful World in the car on his birthday.

During the documentary, the mother-of-two acknowledged Ben’s discomfort with stepping in the spotlight as a couple after facing intense media scrutiny when they first dated between 2002 and 2004.

J Lo is pictured at the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week

J Lo is pictured at the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week

‘I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this,’ she said. ‘But he loves me, he knows I’m an artist, and he’s gonna support me in every way he can because he knows you can’t stop me from making the music I madeā€¦ he doesn’t want to stop me. But that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable being the muse.’

Elsewhere in the documentary, Jennifer burst into tears as she confessed what her husband made her see in herself was ‘moving’.

Welling up, she revealed: ‘What he said and what he saw in me, and what he made me believe about myself, only comes from love.

‘Because nobody else could have made me see that about myself. It’s very moving.

‘Because I didn’t think much about myself and so the world didn’t think much of me. That lined up.’

She said of their reunion: ‘We’re totally different people now and we’re the same and we have the same love 100 percent. Like I’d never fallen out of love with you. I had to just put it over here.’

The couple got engaged near the end of 2002 but broke the engagement in late 2003 before ending their relationship entirely in 2004.

In the intervening years, Jennifer married and divorced her third ex-husband Marc Anthony, with whom she welcomed her 15-year-old twins Max and Emme.

Meanwhile, Ben married and divorced Jennifer Garner , with whom he amicably co-parents three children.

Lopez’s rep has been contacted for comment.Ā Ā 

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