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- Jennifer Lopez's chaotic year went from bad to worse when she filed to divorce Ben Affleck.
- The divorce follows months of online criticism and the cancellation of her tour.
- But PR experts say it is still possible for Lopez to shift the attention back to her career.
Not much is going right for Jennifer Lopez who just filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after a failed tour. But crisis PRs told Business Insider Lopez can recover by reinventing herself.
Four years ago, Lopez was enjoying a career-high. The 2019 movie "Hustlers" saw her acting finally receive critical acclaim, and her 2020 Super Bowl performance was a huge success. They became the focus of the Netflix documentary "Halftime," which painted Lopez as an underappreciated triple-threat who was finally getting her dues.
Fans also rooted for Lopez when she got back with her ex-fiancé, Affleck, whom she split from in 2004. When they married in 2022, fans swooned over their fairytale love story.
But the tide turned this year.
The month after Lopez quietly rebranded her "This Is Me… Live" tour as a greatest hits show, it was canceled.
A representative for events promoter Live Nation said in a statement at the time: "Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family, and close friends."
But fans speculated that the tour was axed because of low ticket sales.
That month, rumors swirled that Lopez and Affleck had split soon after she dedicated an album, movie, and documentary to their love story.
The final nail in the coffin came on Tuesday when Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck.
Lopez's documentary invited unwanted scrutiny of her personal life
In February, Lopez released her most ambitious album to date, "This Is Me… Now," a multimedia project about her journey to find love. Alongside it, she released a musical movie, "This Is Me… Now: A Love Story," and a behind-the-scenes documentary, "The Greatest Love Story Never Told," about the making of both.
"This Is Me... Now" could have been an opportunity to celebrate her new marriage after decades of being unlucky in love. But the album had a lukewarm reception and the film was widely panned. Soon, she was being torn apart on social media, as people used interview snippets to question her authenticity as a simple girl from the Bronx.
Once a celebrity becomes the sort of person the public wants to mock, especially with platforms like TikTok making it easy to take clips out of context, "it's really, really hard to fight back with that," Lauren Beeching, a crisis management expert and founder of reputational management agency Honest London, said.
Mayah Riaz, a celebrity manager and publicist said via email that the project opened the door to unwanted scrutiny — a challenge for both Lopez's career and relationship.
In the documentary, Affleck suggested he was not entirely comfortable with their love story being the "muse" of the project. His comments have resurfaced in light of the divorce, leading fans to speculate it put a strain on their relationship.
"Every move, interaction, and appearance becomes fodder for analysis, which I have seen can strain even the strongest relationships," Riaz said, adding that she would have advised Lopez to focus her project on "broader themes of love, resilience, and personal growth."
"He wasn't comfortable and it showed," Joanne Spence, the cofounder of UK PR firm Tigerbond, said. "Too much access far too soon in a quest to convince everyone of a great love story. Compare this to the reaction to David and Victoria Beckham's documentary that was met with an outpouring of love on social."
She added: "Documentaries can work but only if both parties are on the same page. The audience can always tell."
Releasing a lot of content in a short space of time can also turn the public against celebrities as they become overwhelmed by their presence.
"It feels like Jennifer Lopez has become more celebrity than artist of late and the focus is no longer on her music and performance but on her personal life." Spence said.
"She gave the audience full access to so much content that helped feed the world of social and not in a good way. An attempt to show their relationship in a new light backfired and made for an uncomfortable watch," she added.
Lopez has regained control of the narrative before — and she can do it again
The PR experts said Lopez should now try to shit the focus from her divorce to her career.
Riaz suggested Lopez address the divorce directly "with care and grace" in a TV interview or statement, and then divert attention back to her career achievements with a new movie or album.
"Jennifer has always been admired for her strength and perseverance. If I were her publicist, I would craft a narrative around resilience, framing this period as one of personal growth and empowerment," she said.
A public statement from both Lopez and Affleck could also work if they were willing to work as a team and communicate the same message, Beeching said. If not, Lopez should focus her social media strategy on creating the narrative that she's a "strong woman" concentrating on her future aspirations and career.
"She just needs to build up her positive outlook," Beeching said. "And get people who are in the public eye to casually mention her in an interview and say how great she is. It's little things like that that can really help her."
Spence believes Lopez will bounce back from her chaotic year, describing her as "an expert in reinvention."
"Focus on what her fans really want to see from her: performance, music, and personality," Spence said. "Throw in a collaboration with the right artist or designer, and she's back in favor. Bennifer might be over, but J Lo will be back."