In news you won’t find in the On The JLo newsletter, have you heard about Jennifer Garner’s 50th birthday?
Besides an aggressively adorable drop-by from her childhood icon, Donny Osmond, the Alias alum revealed that she rang in the milestone with an over-the-top bash fit for a bride.
“I basically had a wedding for myself,” she said in a Town & Country profile. “I was so shocked that I was doing it.”
The event, which went down back in April, was initially meant to be a family affair with Jennifer’s parents, siblings and nephews flying in, but quickly “snowballed” from there.
And in typical Jennifer Garner fashion, there was a philanthropic twist to the festivities. Before guests danced to Rocky Top by the Osborne Brothers, they were tasked with stuffing “5000 backpacks each with enough food to feed a family of four for a program called Blessings in a Backpack”.
“I put everyone to work,” she told the outlet.
Ahead of her 50th birthday, Jennifer revealed that she was eagerly awaiting the celebration, telling Extra: “I don’t know what we’ll do, but I can’t wait.”
One present came a bit early when Donny Osmond wished a very overwhelmed Jennifer a happy birthday in person by surprising her at a restaurant with cake in hand.
“My first (pre)birthday surprise was a doozy — the one and only, legend in his own time, object of my childhood adoration and devotion @donnyosmond showed up to knock my purple socks off,” she wrote alongside the sweet video.
Jennifer’s birthday arrived on the heels of her ex-husband Ben Affleck proposing once again to Jennifer Lopez, to whom he was first engaged nearly 20 years ago.
The pair later celebrated their romance with two wedding ceremonies, where Ben and his three children with Jennifer Garner ― Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Sam, 10 ― were all present.
Jennifer Garner’s own 2005 nuptials to Ben were an extremely understated affair. The couple tied the knot on the beach sans friends or family, aside from Alias co-star Victor Garber, who officiated the wedding.
As for whether she ever intends to wed again, Jen said the idea of getting married isn’t high on her priority list.
“I don’t know. I’m so far from it. And I don’t know that marriage would need to be a part ... I mean, I definitely don’t think that I’ll be single forever,” she told People back in 2021. “But this is not the time. I don’t need to complicate it; I’m good.”
And yet, engagement rumours surrounding Jennifer and her boyfriend John Miller never cease, especially after she was spotted last month wearing a diamond ring.