As Jennifer Lopez has often said about herself, Ben Affleck hasn’t given up on love either, and he’s thinking about dating again.

But the 52-year-old actor, director and producer according to information has a strict requirement for his next significant other: She must be sober or in recovery.

Affleck, who is known for his struggles with alcohol addiction and his reported attempts to stay sober recently, has just come off a “tough” couple of years with his high-flying romance with Lopez, 55, and the spectacular collapse of their two-year marriage, an insider told the Daily Mail. This turmoil has shown him how important it is to stay sober and healthy.

“Ben hasn’t given up on his relationships and finally feels ready to move on and start dating again,” the source told the Daily Mail. “He won’t jump into anything serious until the divorce is finalized, but that doesn’t mean he can’t date.”

But going forward, Affleck “only wants to date someone who is sober or in recovery,” the source said. “The last two years have been tough for Ben and as he begins to heal, one thing is very clear: his recovery comes first. He will not compromise his sobriety.”

After Affleck moved out of the $68 million mansion he bought with Lopez during their brief marriage and returned to bachelor life in his own rental villa, friends feared he might relapse and start drinking again under the strain of their very public breakup.

But Affleck reportedly remained sober and was upset by reports of friends’ fears. “Ben is trying to avoid reading the news, but it upset him that people thought he was relapsing because he hadn’t,” the source said.

To some extent, Lopez accommodated Affleck’s demands for a sober partner. The singer, actor and entrepreneur has long claimed that she avoids alcohol for health and beauty reasons.

But in 2023, she was seen by fans like sending very mixed messages about her support of her husband’s sober lifestyle by attaching her name to an alcohol brand, Delola, which sells ready-to-drink spirits made with vodka, tequila or amaro.

Fans sounded the alarm because Lopez was newly married to a “sober partner”; her fourth husband had been to rehab several times and openly discussed how his alcohol abuse damaged his first marriage to Jennifer Garner and did serious damage to his career as an actor and director. On Lopez’s Instagram post, announcing her new brand partnership with Delola, followers accused her of being disrespectful to Affleck and trying to make money and “stay relevant.”

“J-Lo, you don’t drink,” one person said on her Instagram post announcing her new Delola partnership. “This is like something that is known and has been pointed out on numerous occasions. I mean…. I understand – a coin is a coin – but mom you don’t drink alcohol.”

It’s likely that Affleck’s commitment to sobriety means more than just not drinking. As recovery experts will tell you, sobriety also means a daily commitment to a new lifestyle, a focus on self-care, and sometimes painful self-examination to transform self-destructive behaviors and attitudes into positive, healthy ones.

“Like all alcoholics, Ben wakes up with only one goal in mind. To be sober that day,” the source said.

Affleck first tried to quit drinking in 1997, according to the Daily Mail. “I just wanted to quit,” he told a reporter in 1998. He sought treatment for alcohol addiction in 2001 and entered rehab in 2017 and 2018, as his marriage to Garner was falling apart. In 2018, Garner was photographed by paparazzi when she arrived at her estranged husband’s home and drove him to rehab. Despite their split, Garner has remained friends with Affleck and has been public about helping him stay healthy, so he can be an active co-parent in raising their three children.

Affleck reportedly sold Lopez “to be a changed man” when they started dating in the spring of 2021. They were first known from 2002 to 2004, when each was a young star in the entertainment world. They almost married, but called off their engagement and broke up, placing much of the blame on intense media scrutiny.

But intense media scrutiny was inevitable when Affleck and Lopez began seeing each other again in 2021. By then, he was “just getting sober,” a source previously told Page Six. “He was in a vulnerable state, and whatever their chemistry played into it … he was in this frantic, excited state.”

But the whirlwind romance quickly died down after they married, the Page Six source reported. Affleck began to yearn for more privacy and he could no longer take Lopez’s level of celebrity, the source said. “He doesn’t want (the entourage) and all the drama that comes with it in his home,” the source said.

A report said that Affleck was the one who pushed for the divorce. A source told In Touch Weekly in June that a “sober, healthy” Affleck “is looking forward to the next chapter. He wants a life of peace and quiet, and escaping the roller coaster will be a relief.”

Affleck publicly disagreed with the extent to which his wife wanted to share aspects of her private life with the public. He said as much in “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” the Amazon Prime documentary she released in February that chronicled their rekindled romance.