Meet the parents! Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are going to have a baby in November. And the couple — who tried to keep their relationship, engagement and baby news a secret for as long as possible — are now planning a rush-rush wedding.
The “Alias” star, 33, is three months pregnant and Ben, 32, had been determined to keep the news under wraps long enough to have a quiet summer wedding near Jennifer’s family home in Charleston, West Virginia.
But now that the cat has been let out of the bag, friends say the couple have gone into crisis mode and are speeding up their nuptials. The National Enquirer can reveal they’re planning an under-the-radar wedding with just a handful of family and friends in the next few weeks.
The pregnancy has been speculated upon for the past several weeks and the news comes after two world exclusives in The National Enquirer. In our May 2 edition, we first reported that following a birthday party for Jennifer in mid- April, Ben proposed to her by giving her a $500,000, 4.5-carat cushion-cut diamond. The fact that Jennifer couldn’t wear the ring because it was too large and had to be re-sized was reported exclusively in our May 9 edition.
Rumors of Jennifer being in the family way were further fueled when the usually super-fit actress was photographed with a bulging belly in early May.
But, according to a friend, the couple’s joyous news was somewhat tainted when a pal of Ben’s accidentally leaked the pregnancy long before the couple was ready to announce it. It is said that Ben was livid when he first heard that a director pal told film executives that Jennifer would be unavailable in November for a part in his next film for “personal reasons.”
Said an insider: “The execs read into Jennifer’s passing on the project, insisting that she was pregnant. And the news spread like wildfire.”
The insider said that the couple are now feverishly searching for a discreet chapel near Charleston and planning on sneaking off and getting the marriage license in Virginia shortly before the ceremony in the next few weeks.
“They are going to have the wedding while Ben is on a weekend break from his new thriller, which is filming in Toronto, and before Jen’s too far along into her summer romantic drama Catch And Release,” said the insider.
“Ben would be happy just to go to a Vegas wedding chapel but Jennifer is a traditional girl who wants a downhome wedding. So it’s full speed ahead — it’ll be Mr. and Mrs. Affleck by summer and a baby by Thanksgiving.”
