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Let's go round again: Why are so many stars getting back with the ex?

Watch: Fans think JLo and Ben Affleck are recreating scenes from music video

Most of us would rather share a bath with tarantulas than get back with our exes. But when you're a star, it's harder than ever to find a suitable partner - so it's not surprising that some simply give up the search and return to the tried and tested.

Famously, Oscars winners Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got back together this year after a break of almost two decades.

They first coupled up back in 2002, and were engaged in short order, but media pressure, a very poor critical reception for their joint movie Gigi, and two very big careers swiftly derailed the love train.

"We didn't try to have a public relationship, we just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids" Lopez told interviewer Jess Cagle in 2018.

"We may have played into that in the beginning because it was fun… but then it was destroying us.

"It was a lot of pressure."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez attend "The Last Duel" New York Premiere this week. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Now, however, Bennifer 2.0 is stronger than ever, with red carpet PDAs, and public praise for one another.

"I'm very happy. It is a very happy time in my life. Life is good,” Ben told Extra TV this week, and last month told Adweek Magazine: “I am in awe of what Jennifer’s effect on the world is.”

They're not the only celebrities to rekindle a lost love, however. Closer to home, TV and stage star Sheridan Smith this week shared a photo of herself with her ex-partner, actor Alex Lawler, just a few months after her engagement to insurance broker Jamie Horn, whom she allegedly met on Tinder, was called off.

She captioned the image, which showed a ring on her wedding ring finger, "Life begins at 40 😁 40\40 ❤️."

Fans piled in immediately, keen to offer congratulations.

‘Lovely news. You look happy. Life is too short not to be,’ said one follower.

Read more: Breaking Up and Getting Back Together Is Actually One of the Best Things You Can Do for Your Relationship

Sheridan has a son, Billy, with ex fiancé Jamie Horn, but the couple split in July.

Back in early September, Sheridan posted a snap with Alex, captioning it :"So pleased this fitty I dated back in the day (20 years ago) is back in my life! Life works in mysterious ways 🥰🤴🏾 miss u Mr L ❤️"

Other famous couples who have tried life without each other before thinking again include The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William.

PA file photo dated 10/02/2007 of Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton watching an international rugby match at Twickenham.
The Cambridges back in 2007, the year they broke up. (PA)

Back at University in St Andrews, they swiftly became a couple, but the pressure of the royal spotlight, and William's reluctance to drag a wife through the tabloid roasting his mother experienced meant they broke up after university in 2007, before getting back together and announcing their engagement in 2010.

Kate said, "At the time I wasn’t very happy about it, but it actually made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised.

"I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger, and I really valued that time for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time.”

Singer Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Baldwin pose at the premiere for the documentary television series
Justin and wife Hailey- stronger the second time. (Reuters)

Read more: J-Lo & Ben Just Posted Their 1st Instagram as a Couple Since They Got Back Together—See the Sweet Photo

Justin Bieber and now wife Hailey Baldwin also split for a while amongst bad feeling. "We went through a long period of time when we weren't friends," she told The Times.

"We didn't speak for quite some time and there was a lot of weirdness that went on. We've moved past that."

Supermodel Gigi Hadid and singer Zayn Malik were also painfully on and off for years - until finally deciding to stick with it. They now have a daughter, Khai, who has just celebrated her first birthday.

Fellow singer Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom also split for a year after Perry experienced career problems- but are once again happily back together.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton after appearing in the first night of the Oxford University Dramatic Society production of Marlowe's Dr Faustus at the Playhouse Theatre. Mr Burton played the title role and wife played the non-speaking part of Helen of Troy. When the play ended last night, the cast took 15 curtain calls and enjoyed over nine minutes of applause.
The poster couple for getting back together, Taylor and Burton. And then splitting up again.... (Getty Images)

Perhaps the most famous on-off couple of all time was Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. They married, divorced and married again, pledging undying love for each other second time around.

Of course, as history relates, it didn't work out - but it was good while it lasted.

Here's hoping our A-listers have got it right this time around. Though we've finally given up on Brad and Jen making a go of things.

Watch: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck make their first red carpet appearance since getting back together