NEW YORK (AP) -- The on-again, off-again relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez is off. Again. And this time, it looks like it's for good.

Jennifer Lopez ended the engagement, one of her publicists told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A spokesman for Lopez at Dan Klores Communications said in a statement: "I am confirming the reports that Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck. At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy."

People and Us Weekly magazines first reported the breakup on their Web sites Thursday afternoon.

Affleck's publicist, Ken Sunshine, would only say: "As usual, we never comment on the private lives of our clients."

Lopez, 34, and Affleck, 31, have been the subject of near-constant media scrutiny for the past year and a half.

In the video for Lopez's 2002 hit "Jenny From the Block," in which she makes fun of the paparazzi, Affleck rubs her legendary posterior while basking in the sunshine on a boat.

In another song from her album "This Is Me ... Then," titled "Dear Ben," she professes her affection for Affleck.

But then their romantic comedy, "Gigli," was considered the cinematic disaster of the year before it even debuted in August.

They were supposed to have married a month later, but abruptly postponed their lavish plans "due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding."

Since then, the media has followed their every move, keeping track of who Lopez was with and whether she wore her 6.1-carat pink diamond Harry Winston engagement ring. Even a routine trip to a Georgia courthouse to get a gun license for Affleck drew a horde of photographers and celebrity reporters.

This would have been the first wedding for Affleck. Lopez has been married twice before -- to waiter Ojani Noa in 1997 and to dancer Cris Judd in 2001. Noa lasted a little more than a year; Judd for nine months.

She also famously dated Sean "P. Diddy" Combs -- back when he was still "Puffy" -- for two years before the couple broke up in February 2001.

The former couple will appear on screen together again in "Jersey Girl," due out March 19. In what is now an irony, Lopez plays Affleck's wife.



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[Edited 1/5/08 16:15pm]