Third Time Not a Charm. Bennifer Bails Again!

Ever since they re-coupled in 2020, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been on an exhaustive hunt for a big and exceedingly expensive new home in Los Angeles where they can live with their blended family in supreme privacy and comfort. According to insider sources and a multitude of reports, they backed out of the first two deals and now comes word down the Platinum Triangle gossip grapevine, via TMZ, that the fickle pair have backed out of a third purchase!

Several months before Affleck sold his Pacific Palisades bachelor pad for $28.5 million last year, the couple initiated and quickly changed their minds about the purchase of a 20,000-square-foot mansion in Bel Air that was listed at $65 million. So the scuttlebutt went at the time, they were prepared to shell out somewhere in the neighborhood of $55 million for the 10-bedroom pad.

Then, earlier this year, shortly after Lopez hoisted her eight-acre resort-like Bel Air estate on the market at $42.5 million, the house-mad pair reportedly opened escrow on a $34.5 million mansion in Pacific Palisades. After several visits to the property, that deal, too, soon fell apart.

It wasn’t long before they set their deep-pocketed real estate sights toward another Pacific Palisades manse, this one priced at $64 million. With eight bedrooms and a dozen bathrooms contained within 16,000 square feet between the three-story main house and two-story guesthouse, the property additionally offers a plush screening room, a paneled library and plenty of A-lister neighbors like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. Alas. After several visits to the property they once again balked.

Never one to sit still for too long, Jenny on the Block has moved on. Indeed, she has already been out having a peek and a poke around several more high-priced options, including the lavish Holmby Hills compound of fashion moguls Max and Lubov Azria.

Now priced at $65 million, considerably less than the original $85 million ask, the nearly three-acre estate comprises six structures that together span almost 30,000 square feet. With a whopping 17 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, plus eight more powder rooms, the estate also includes off-street parking for dozens of cars, a mosaic-tiled swimming pool, a silver-leafed dining room, a professional-grade theater, a Turkish-style hammam, and a lighted tennis court.

Should the Azria compound not be to Bennifer’s liking, there are several other homes in the immediate area that are in the same price range and offer a similar amount of space. Marketed as inspired by Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum, Eva Chow’s 30,000-square-foot home is listed at $65 million, well below the $78 million originally asked back in 2018, while il Magione, a 31,000-square-foot mega mansion complete with a two-lane bowling alley, is up for grabs at $63 million.

Meanwhile, with no giant new house to yet call home, and some difficulty making a decision, Bennifer and their posse are reported to be shacked up at J Lo’s super-private spread in Bel Air. Though they are looking for a larger home, the family can’t be too squeezed in the 13,000-square-foot home that offers nine bedrooms and 13 bathrooms along with a sleek swimming pool, 100-seat amphitheater and private lake with its own sandy beach.