Ben AffleckBen Affleck has said he thinks his relationship with Jennifer Lopez damaged his reputation in Hollywood.

The couple, dubbed ‘Bennifer’, dated between 2002-2004 and reportedly cancelled at least two wedding dates as a result of unwanted media attention.

Ben has now told Details magazine: “It was probably bad for my career.”

“What happens is this sort of bleeds over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody.”

“I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and (the media) mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that.”

He added that he feels his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone is a “linchpin for my life, my career”: “I have a lot riding on it. I want it to work. Badly.”

“Listen, I’ve gone out and directed a movie and made it really f—king good. If the movie’s good, people will like it and go see it. All the rest of it is bullsh*t.”