The power couple claimed they called off their 2003 wedding due to "excessive media attention" at the time.

Jennifer Lopez says she and Ben Affleck really wanted to make their relationship work when they called off their wedding in 2003 - but they weren’t "mature enough" to figure it out.

The 54-year-old actress and singer was initially engaged to Hollywood star Ben, 51, in the early 2000s before they broke things off and reconciled more than two decades later and tied the knot in 2022.

The ’Marry Me’ star - who has twins Emme and Max, 15, with former spouse Marc Anthony - has opened up about calling off her wedding to the ’Argo’ star and explained that they both were not "emotionally" ready to make the relationship work.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, she said: “We didn’t break up right at that moment. It happened over the series of the next few months."

“What it did was it casted doubt in me ― and both of us ― about what our relationship was and where it was going.

“And I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life ... But it didn’t feel like we were going to make it. And so, it scared me.

“You just don’t have the capacity and the ability at that moment, emotionally, to figure it out. We just weren’t mature enough in that way."

She continued: “We just weren’t there yet. And so, we go, ‘Oh, this is what people do, they break up when things get hard, and we’re going to go our separate ways.’

“And we went, and we both tried and found other people and had beautiful children, and had other families, and even had other relationships after that.”

The ’Second Chance’ star said she and Ben - who has Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Sam, 11, with Jennifer Garner - needed the time apart to grow on their own before reuniting.

She explained: “It wasn’t until both of us had done, I know for me, a lot of work and got into a place where I was like, ‘You know what? I’m totally good on my own.’

“I’m chill, I love my life, I have this amazing career that I’ve built for myself, I have these amazing children, I have great friends ― that’s when he showed back up.

“And funnily enough, he said he had had the same type of experience.”