It’s always nice to see two women in Hollywood become best friends and, for a long time, Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini were among the industry's most high-profile besties. However, in recent years, the pair of Second Act stars allegedly have become distant – particularly after JLo’s renewed romance with Ben Affleck from 2021 to 2024. As for what's going on with them now, an insider is now dropping claims.
JLo and Remini go way back! They met in 2004 when Lopez’s husband at the time, Marc Anthony, introduced them. Lopez previously said she and her gal pal “fell in love” immediately after meeting, and the rest was history. And then they got to work together in 2018’s Second Act. A source for Page Six now alleges that the dynamics between the two stars have changed in a few key ways:
Jennifer still has love for Leah and there’s no huge drama or anything like that, but the friendship just isn’t what it used to be. They’re not constantly texting and hanging out anymore. Over the last few years Jennifer took a bit of a step back and their lives aren’t as intertwined as they once were.
According to the source, JLo and Leah Remini actually became more distant after working on Second Act. Lopez reportedly felt “overwhelmed by the dynamic and started pulling back” because she needed “more space from the friendship” after spending “so much constant time together during filming”. Remini’s feelings were also allegedly “hurt” by this, and they purportedly haven’t been as close since. The insider also said this:
Leah definitely misses the closeness they had and would always be open to being super close again, but Jennifer’s just in a different place right now. They still care about each other, it’s just more of a distant friendship these days rather than that tight bond people saw before.
One thing that Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini have reportedly bonded over lately are their respective divorces. Remini filed for divorce from Angelo Pagán in August 2024 after 21 years of marriage – the same month that Lopez filed from Ben Affleck. Their shared divorce experiences supposedly got them to reconnect after Affleck was allegedly another reason they pulled back from each other. Per the source:
Leah and Ben never really clicked, and that definitely created a bit of a wedge between Jennifer and Leah for a period of time. It wasn’t some huge dramatic falling out or anything like that, but over time Jennifer just took a step back from the friendship.
A year after their divorces, Remini said that she and JLo would “text each other loving messages of support”. The King of Queens star also said at the time that “friendships ebb and flow” and distance doesn’t automatically mean that a pair of friends are “at odds.”
On that note, Leah Remini didn’t attend JLo and Affleck’s wedding, and instead, had dinner with her daughter before she went off to college. It's hard not to wonder if the friends will connect more now that JLo’s twins recently turned 18 and will soon be heading off to college, leaving the multihyphenate with an empty nest.
Her personal relationships aside, Jennifer Lopez has a new romantic comedy called Office Romance, and it'll soon be available to anyone with a Netflix subscription. The film sees Lopez and Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein play coworkers who fall in love. Lopez has said that her co-star surprised her by being “totally different” than she expected.
Viewers can see Office Romance on Netflix starting on June 5 and, if this insider's recent comments are any indication, fans probably shouldn't expect to see Leah Remini at the premiere.
