WORLD, MEET ANA

Ben Affleck Enhances Gaiety of the Nation by Kissing Ana de Armas on Deserted Street in Full View of Paps

The newly loved-up couple sported a cute white dog and hot pink Gucci pool sliders as they took their romance public amid L.A.’s stay-at-home order.

With celebrities only allowed out of their secure bunkers for a maximum of one non-essential photo call per day, it’s important to make every second in the public domain count.

Ben Affleck and his Deep Water co-star Ana de Armas have certainly received the memo, venturing out from their home with a solid alibi (walking her minuscule white puppy) before pausing for a paparazzi-friendly smooch on the streets around Ben’s Los Angeles home, in new pictures whizzing around the internet on Tuesday.

The photographs (and video) of the romantic walk around the deserted streets appear to confirm that this relationship is very, very serious indeed, as there is no better way to say “I love you” than by inviting someone to co-isolate with you in your Pacific Palisades hidey-hole, clocking the paparazzi and then making out.

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Of course, we must thank the paps who are selflessly risking life and limb to remain on duty in these trying times. Bringing us these vital updates on Ben Affleck’s love life is important work, and has been ever since he started dating Jennifer Lopez in early aughts.

They became, as Bennifer, the world’s first portmanteau couple and tabloid staples. They were engaged and headed for the altar before finally breaking up in 2003 after Jenny ill-advisedly persuaded him to play the part of a hunky gas-pump attendant in one of her videos and they both starred in the world’s worst movie, Gigli.

To be fair, the reviews from that turkey (gobble gobble) would be enough to make anyone struggle with their relationship and sense of self-worth.

While Bennifer I was now dead, a few short years later Bennifer II would rise from the ashes as Affleck started dating and then-married Jennifer Garner.

The two split in 2015 after a decade of marriage and finalized their divorce in late 2018. Ben and Jennifer continue to co-parent their three children— daughters Violet, 14, and Seraphina, 11, and son Samuel, 8.

(Intriguingly, on Monday, Garner was seen out for a walk on the beach in Santa Monica with her children. Was this Ben’s counterpunch?)

ET reported Monday that Ana and Ben “instantly had a connection” when they first met and have recently wrapped Deep Water, in which Affleck plays a wealthy man who permits his wife, played by Ana, to have affairs in order to keep her in their marriage.

“Ben and Ana are still early into their relationship, but it’s been fun and exciting for both,” the source told ET, “Ben is sober and in a really good place and Ana respects him for the process he’s going through.”

Affleck recently talked to ET about what he’s looking for in his next relationship, saying “Care, and mutual respect… I think that’s a big part of what makes life satisfying and interesting... It sort of happens when it happens, though. It’s not the thing you can force.”

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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