Ben Affleck and his former fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, are still on speaking terms.
The duo famously met while filming "Gigli" in 2003. They quickly got engaged but called off their plans to wed in early 2004. While chatting with The New York Times, Ben was asked about J.Lo, but the quotes never made it into the story.
On Friday, the journalist who conducted the interview took to Twitter to share a few snippets that landed on the cutting room floor.
Ben, according to Brooks Barnes, said Jennifer "should have been nominated" for an Academy Award this year for her performance in "Hustlers."
"She's the real thing," he said. "I keep in touch periodically with her and have a lot of respect for her. How awesome is it that she had her biggest hit movie at 50? That's f—— baller."
After Ben and Jennifer split, she quickly married Marc Anthony in the summer of 2004. She and Marc split in 2012, and she's now engaged to baseball legend Alex Rodriguez.
Ben, meanwhile, married Jennifer Garner in the summer of 2005. They split after almost 10 years of marriage in 2015.
During his interview with The New York Times, the actor said his divorce was the "biggest regret" of his life, admitting that alcohol was a factor in the breakup.
"I drank relatively normally for a long time," he said. "What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems."
During a chat with Diane Sawyer that aired on "Good Morning America," he elaborated on his previous comments: "I never thought that I was gonna get divorced," he said. "I didn't want to get divorced. I didn't want to be a divorced person. I really didn't want to be a split family with my children. And it upset me because it meant I wasn't who I thought I was. And that was so painful and so disappointing in myself."
Despite the split, Ben has always been complimentary of his ex-wife.
"The first and main thing that I have to say to Jennifer Garner in public or in private is thank you," he told The Times. "I want to be really clear about how much I respect her and how much I value the fact that she works with me in co-parenting."