After seven years of marriage, it's over for Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. "We have decided to end our marriage," they tell PEOPLE in a joint statement. "This was a very difficult decision. We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters."
"It is a painful time for all involved," the statement continues, "and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time."
Lopez, 41, and Anthony, 42, wed in June 2004 in a casual – and secret – ceremony at Lopez's Beverly Hills home.
On Friday, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony shook up the world with the news that they're ending their fairy tale marriage. After seven years of matrimony, the couple has had plenty of happy moments to reminisce over. Click through our photo gallery to remember the pair in happier times.
Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony announced their surprising split on Friday. After seven years of marriage, the parents of 3-year-old twins Max and Emme made the difficult decision to end their marriage.
"We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters," Lopez, 40, and Anthony, 42, said in a joint statement. "It is a painful time for all involved, and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time."
Friends for years, Lopez and Anthony dated briefly in the 1990s. They stepped out again as a couple in early 2004, shortly after Lopez's broken engagement from Ben Affleck, and in the midst of Anthony's divorce from first wife, former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres. They wed at a quiet home wedding in June 2004.
Just last year, they renewed their wedding vows for their sixth anniversary at their Hidden Hills, Calif. estate June 5. "We realized the bets in Vegas [on whether we'd make it] stopped at five years," Anthony joked to Us Weekly at the time. (The duo also renewed their vows in 2008, and playfully dirty-danced together at Us Weekly's Hot Hollywood bash in April 2010.)
And as recently as January, singer, actress and American Idol judge Lopez gushed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show about being a parent with Anthony. "As soon as I had the babies, I thought to myself, 'I want to do this a thousand more times...I love this. This is life."
Anthony and first wife Torres share sons Cristin, 10, and Ryan, 7. Lopez (who famously dated Sean Combs in addition to Affleck), had been married twice before: to restauranteur Ojani Noa (they split in 1998) and former backup dancer Cris Judd, to whom she was married from 2001 to 2003.
In the video above, take a look back at the ups and downs of Lopez and Anthony's relationship throughout the year.
Power Couple
Anthony's no-shows fueled rumors of trouble in their marriage, even if Anthony did have reason to be away: he's been busy this summer filming the TNT medical drama HawthoRNe, in which he plays a police detective
Also, with Anthony and Lopez, Hollywood observers have long been wary of jumping to conclusions since catching people off-guard has been their hallmark from the very beginning.
They were married in secret in June 2004 at Lopez's Beverly Hills home.
At the time, the two had never even acknowledged their romantic relationship publicly, and, days before, Anthony had been granted a divorce in the Dominican Republic from Dayanara Torres, with whom he has two sons.
The marriage was the third for Lopez, and it came just months after her whirlwind 18-month-relationship with – and engagement to – Ben Affleck.
Lopez and Anthony went on to become one of show business's closest and most successful power couples. They were fixtures at award shows, premieres and fundraisers, famously toured together and, in February 2008, welcomed twins son Max and daughter Emme.
Breakups
Although Anthony's absence raised eyebrows at the BAFTA event, it turns out this wasn’t the first time he was missing in action. The pair had not been seen together since early June, with Lopez traveling to Europe and later to Disneyland with their children, but not Marc Anthony.
