To most people, love letters are private and intimate exchanges, intended only for the person they are written to. But for Jennifer Lopez, they’re a source of inspiration to be shared with the world in the form of an album, a movie musical, and a documentary. According to Variety, Ben Affleck was “taken aback” when he saw Lopez sharing the love letters he wrote to her — which he apparently titled “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” — with a group of musicians helping her write for her latest album.
“I did really find the beauty and the poetry and the irony in the fact that it’s the greatest love story never told,” Affleck says in the documentary — which is also titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told and is about the making of the album and movie musical. “If you’re making a record about it, that seems kind of like telling it.”
Per Variety, after Lopez told her manager, Benny Medina, about her search for love between the time she and Affleck broke up in 2004 and when they reunited in 2021, Medina suggested she make an album about that journey. He put her in touch with songwriters, and “for inspiration” — as Variety puts it — she invited them to her home, where she showed them the letters.
The Greatest Love Story Never Told documentary will be out on February 27. But those itching for J.Lo content don’t have to wait too long. Her album, This Is Me … Now and its hour-long Amazon companion film — starring Jane Fonda, Trevor Noah, Fat Joe, and Keke Palmer — will be released on Friday. The album is a follow-up to her 2002 album, This Is Me … Then.
Trailers for the $20 million film (which J.Lo funded herself) haven’t quite provided clarity about the project, but at the premiere on Tuesday, Lopez compared it to a “mini Marvel movie” with animation, many characters to keep track of, and a fight scene. Whatever it is, Lopez seemed to have had fun making it, telling the audience at the premiere, “I hope that this movie and this album give you a little bit of what it gave me, which is hope, joy, and happiness and inspiration.”