Bennifer Divided

The vultures have been circling for some time now, ready to descend on the carcass of yet another celebrity break-up and now, after an official announcement, it seems the media will finally get their pound of flesh. We at Empire Online like to think (perhaps erroneously) that we are above such petty maulings so we're going to make this as quick and painless as possible, doing our level best not to partake in the feeding frenzy. After calling off their wedding four months ago, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are now officially over. Tuesday has been cited as the day the couple parted company and Lopez's publicist has made an official statement to press stating that: "Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck. At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy." Speculation as to whose fault it was and what the sordid details are have been rife, but we're not going to go into all that nonsense here. Having interviewed Ben the other week, Empire Online found him to be a pretty pleasant bloke and perhaps underserving of such tabloid manhandling. So we'll leave it with the traditional 'bad luck, mate', and reaffirm what his mother's doubtless telling him: 'don't worry, there are plenty more fish in the sea.'