What Jennifer Lopez Did After Being Declared Legally Single

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Effie Orfanides is a contributing entertainment writer for Newsweek, based in Tampa, Florida. Her focus is on entertainment news, celebrity relationships, and reality television. Effie joined Newsweek in 2025. An entertainment news veteran, she has bylines at People magazine, Heavy, NickiSwift, CBS Local, SheKnows, and more. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in English.

You can get in touch with Effie by emailing e.orfanides@newsweek.com.

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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck settled their divorce in court on Monday, January 6. However, the two weren't declared legally single until Friday, February 21, per court documents obtained by People magazine.

On the same day that the court documents were filed, Lopez, 55, performed a sold out show in Abu Dhabi. The Waiting for Tonight singer took the stage to perform some of her hit songs and, at one point during the concert, she got emotional.

In a video shared by Lopez's official fan club On the JLo, the entertainer was clearly taken aback by the ongoing cheers from the crowd. She lowered her microphone and put her hand over her heart as she mouthed the words "I love you very much" to her fans.

Jennifer Lopez attends the "Kiss Of The Spider Woman" Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 26, 2025 in Park City, Utah. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

The comments section of the post quickly filled with love and support from fans.

"Good for her. She deserves all that love," one person wrote. "Take in all that love baby!!! You deserve it," another comment read.

Meanwhile, on her own Instagram account, Lopez shared a video of her performance of Louboutins from the show. "LIVE in 2025," she captioned the post. Fans loved seeing a sneak peek of the show, with many showing Lopez love in the comments section of the post.

The show marked Lopez's first show since becoming legally single. She and Affleck, who dated in the early 2000s, rekindled their romance in 2021 and ended up getting married the following year. However, just shy of what would have been their second wedding anniversary, things went awry.

Lopez quietly filed for divorce in August 2024. She listed the date of separation as April 26, and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce filing, per People.

"You have to be good on your own. I thought I learned that, but I didn't. And then, this summer, I had to be like, 'I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that,'" Lopez told Interview magazine in an article published in October 2024.

"Being in a relationship doesn't define me. I can't be looking for happiness in other people. I have to have happiness within myself," she continued, adding that she has no regrets over how her love life with Affleck played out.

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