They have both enthralled and bewildered fans for years with their on-again off-again relationship, but Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck – known jointly as Bennifer – finally tied the knot in Las Vegas at the weekend.

The couple wed at A Little White Wedding Chapel on Saturday, according to a court document and Lopez. In her fan newsletter, On the JLo, the singer, actor and dancer wrote: “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”

A link to the site, accompanying a photograph of Lopez in bed wearing a wedding band, also said: “We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to.”

They barely made the chapel by midnight, Lopez said, adding that the venue “graciously” stayed open late for the couple who took photos in a pink Cadillac convertible “once used by the King himself”.

Now renamed Lopez Affleck, the 52-year-old recently released the Netflix documentary Halftime about the Super Bowl half-time show she co-headlined with Shakira in 2020. Affleck, 49, is known for his performances in the 2014 film Gone Girl and in 2012’s Argo, which he also directed.

The couple famously dated in the early 2000s before rekindling their romance last year. They were co-stars in Gigli (2003) and Jersey Girl (2004) around the time they became engaged – but broke it off blaming “excessive media attention”.

Lopez wrote on the celebrity news site Page Six in 2014: “Ben and I split up at the moment when I thought we were committing to each other forever, it was my first real heartbreak, it felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest.”

In April the couple announced their engagement when Lopez shared a video of her large green-stoned engagement ring on her platform, a relationship revival which spurred an internet obsession over the couple that first began dating in July 2002.

Affleck was previously married to the actor Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children. They divorced in 2018 after 13 years of marriage. The marriage is Lopez’s fourth, having previously married singer Marc Anthony for 10 years, with whom she shares twins.

Speaking of rekindling their relationship nearly 18 years after they split, Lopez told Ellen DeGeneres: “I don’t think anyone was more surprised than us.” She added: “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Affleck has yet to comment publicly. In December 2021 he told the Wall Street Journal, “One of the harder lessons that I have learned is that it’s not wise to share everything with the world.”