Jennifer Lopez opens up about dating Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Ben Affleck: 'It was crazy'

These days, Jennifer Lopez is engaged to former Yankee Alex Rodriguez and getting marriage advice from none other than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But the public still holds a fascination with some of the thrice-married star’s other high-profile relationships. Exhibit A: Bennifer.

In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the 50-year-old actress and singer was asked to revisit her famous romances with Sean “Diddy” Combs — then known as Puff Daddy, or Puffy — and Ben Affleck. Lopez dated Combs between 1999 and 2001; she and Gigli and Jersey Girl co-star Affleck got engaged in 2002, postponed their 2003 wedding with just a few days’ notice and eventually split in early 2004.

“The Puffy era was just kind of a crazy, heightened time in my life,” she told interviewer Tony Dokoupil. “You know, Puffy and I both grew up in the Bronx. He had been in the music business and had all this success; I was just starting and making my first album when I met him. He became kind of a mentor to me in that moment. We had this kind of crazy, tumultuous relationship that ended in a bang.”

“Almost literally,” Dokoupil interjected, referencing the then-couple’s involvement in a December 1999 shooting at a Manhattan nightclub. Combs was arrested on weapons violations but was subsequently found not guilty in a trial shortly before his breakup with Lopez.

“It was definitely a moment but I felt like it was necessary,” she said of her relationship with the rapper and music producer, who just celebrated his 50th birthday. “He was meant to be in my life at that moment to teach me what I needed to know about the music business, about what kind of artist I wanted to be in the music industry.”

Yahoo Entertainment