Celebs

Jennifer Lopez’s mom ‘prayed for 20 years’ her daughter would reunite with Ben Affleck

Guadalupe Rodriguez stole the show when her daughter appeared on the "Today" show Wednesday.

Jennifer Lopez and Guadalupe Rodríguez perform onstage during Global Citizen VAX LIVE: The Concert To Reunite The World at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

By Kevin Slane

May 4, 2023

Jennifer Lopez was the main attraction on the “Today” show Wednesday morning, discussing her action star turn in Netflix’s upcoming movie “The Mother.” But it was Lopez’s mother, Guadalupe Rodríguez, who stole the show, proclaiming on-air that she “always knew” her daughter would one day reunite with actor Ben Affleck.

Nearly 20 years after Lopez and Affleck first got engaged in November 2002, the couple tied the knot in a quick Vegas ceremony in July 2022. Though “Bennifer” initially broke up in 2004, at least one person believed the couple’s story wasn’t over: Rodriguez.

As Lopez discussed her life with “Today” host Hoda Kotb, Rodriguez piped up from a nearby couch, where she sat with “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie.

“I knew that you would always get back together,” Rodriguez said. “Because I prayed for 20 years.”

Lopez, for her part, said that Affleck has been a wonderful father figure, both to his own children and to Lopez’s 15-year-old twins, Max and Emme.

“He’s a wonderful, wonderful father and father figure to them,” Lopez said. “He has his own three beautiful children and then there’s us, and he’s fantastic. He really steps up to the challenge of what that is and what that means, and they love him. They love him. They appreciate him and so do I,” she said.