Jennifer Lopez says her Las Vegas wedding to husband Ben Affleck was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
On Wednesday, the 53-year-old star said the couple only developed their elopement plan midway through intense pre-wedding preparations for a big family ceremony in Georgia.
"We were planning to get married in August in Savannah, the family was going to be there, everyone's going to be there and it was so stressful," Lopez told Jimmy Kimmel Live! while promoting her new movie Shotgun Wedding.
"A month before, and I don't know if you guys know this, but 20 years ago we were supposed to get married," she joked of her highly public first engagement to the actor in 2002.
"I heard that, I read that," Kimmel joked about the couple's split just days before their Sept. 2003 nuptials.
"It kind of all fell apart back then and this time, I absolutely had a little PTSD and so I was like, 'Is this happening?'" said Lopez.
"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, 'F--- it, let's just go to Vegas and get married tonight.'"
"I was just like, this is crazy, what are we doing?" added Lopez, who went on to reveal that Affleck handled everything, and reassured her he was "going to have everything set up."
"So then you get on a Spirit Airlines flight," Kimmel quipped, causing Lopez to chuckle.
"It was the best day of our lives," Lopez replied about her July 15 wedding to the Oscar winner.
Lopez and Affleck walked down the aisle at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas just before midnight on July 15, months after revealing their engagement in April.
"We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient….Last night, we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world," Lopez wrote to her fans in her On the JLo newsletter on July 17.
"Behind us two men held hands and held each other," Lopez continued. "In front of us, a young couple who made the three hour drive from Victorville on their daughter's second birthday—all of us wanting the same thing—for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage."
For the ceremony, Lopez wore a white, lace off-shoulder long-sleeve bridal gown with a sweetheart neckline, corset bodice and fishtail train and matching veil with lace trim from Zuhair Murad. (She also appeared to wear another look — "a dress from an old movie" — the same night.)
"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 continued. "They even had a Bluetooth for the (short) march down the aisle. But in the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made very real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very, long last."
PEOPLE obtained the wedding license at the time, which stated that she intended to use Affleck's last name. Her announcement newsletter was signed "Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck."
Lopez and Affleck, who costarred in the movie Gigli, began dating in July 2002 and got engaged that November.
After the split, Affleck wed Jennifer Garner, 50, with whom he shares Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 10. Lopez also had 14-year-old twins Max and Emme with Grammy-winning singer Marc Anthony, 54, whom she wed in 2004.
In 2021, the stars rekindled their relationship. "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," Lopez told PEOPLE earlier this year about their romance. "It's a beautiful outcome that this has happened in this way at this time in our lives where we can really appreciate and celebrate each other and respect each other."
They later had their Savannah wedding with friends and family in August 2022.
During the Wednesday interview, Kimmel brought up the couple's old moniker, "Bennifer," and asked Lopez her thoughts about it.
"You know what, I've learned to embrace it," she said. "Years ago it was kind of like, 'Oh, Bennifer,' Actually, it wasn't a bad thing even years ago but I think it became a thing where people made fun of it."
At the end of her segment, rocker Lenny Kravitz showed up, surprising the audience after fake footage played from a helicopter landing. "Did I tell you that Lenny Kravitz is in the movie?" Lopez said amid cheers, then announced that she had to take off to her premiere. "I have to go. The chopper's waiting!" Lopez said, kissing Kimmel on the cheek and leaving arm-in-arm with Kravitz.
