EXCLUSIVE: J.Lo Engaged to Ben Affleck

Nov. 10 -- Jennifer Lopez has confirmed that she and Hollywood leading man Ben Affleck are engaged.

The pair met last December while filming the upcoming gangster movie Gigli, which they co-star in. Their romance became public this summer when they were photographed kissing in public on numerous occasions.

During an interview with Primetime's Diane Sawyer, airing on Wednesday night, Lopez was at first coy on the marriage question, laughing and saying only that, "We're very, um, secure with our relationship."

But a few minutes later, during a break to change tape, Lopez thought a minute, called Affleck, and then said they had decided to go on the record.

Sawyer then asked, "Are you engaged?" and Lopez replied, "Yes."

A 'Beautiful' Proposal

Lopez, 32, said Affleck's proposal was "traditional, but also in a very spectacular way, as of course Ben would do it."

She added: "It was very, very beautiful."

She showed Sawyer the engagement ring Affleck gave her — a pink diamond on a platinum band.

Asked how she would describe Affleck to somebody who had never met him, Lopez said, "I'd probably say that he is brilliantly smart, loving, charming, affectionate. And I just admire him in every way. I respect him. I feel like he teaches me things."

But before she got to know him, she had thought he was just one of the typical Hollywood "playboy types, skirt chasers," she said, adding, "I've told him, too. He knows."

'Same Kind of Background'

She said she realizes people might view her and Affleck as an unlikely couple.

"We've talked about this so many times," she said. "And we talked about how people kind of see him with one type of person and me with another type of person, and the two of us together is like 'How did that happen?,' and how we're probably more alike and from the same kind of background and, you know, same kind of upbringing and same kind of family and same kind of house."

Lopez said she is a romantic at heart.