Jennifer Lopez has spent decades in the spotlight as one of the most famous
multi-hyphenates in the world. This is not to say that she hasn't experienced hardship
and tragedy. Here are a few of those moments that have tested the mom of two's incredible strength.
It's hard to believe now, but before Jennifer Lopez was the proud owner
of numerous multi-million dollar homes across the country, she was actually homeless. Lopez
found herself out of her family home following a disagreement with her mother, Guadalupe Rodríguez,
about her pursuing a dance career instead of furthering her education. Showing how
serious she was about becoming a dancer, despite her mom's opposition, Lopez started
spending her nights at the dance studio where she practiced. She recalled in a 2013 W interview:
"My mom and I butted heads. I didn't want to go to college — I wanted to try dance full-time.
So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless,
but I told her, 'This is what I have to do.'"
Fortunately, it wasn't long until her dance career really took off.
Lopez got a dancing gig in Europe a few months after the fallout with her mom,
and then landed her dream job as a Fly Girl on the TV show In Living Color,
which caused her to make the big move to Los Angeles. The rest, as they say, is history.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jennifer Lopez is worth a whopping $400 million dollars.
Though this makes her one of the richest stars in the world, there was a time when she was so
poor she could only afford to eat one slice of pizza per day. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight,
she recalled her bare minimum diet before landing her role on In Living Color,
admitting she survived on pizza for, quote, "a couple of years."
She shared a little more about this difficult period in a 2014 interview with The Sydney
Morning Herald, after she was asked what she would do if she only had $100 in the bank. She admitted:
"I've been there when I only had $100, or $20, and had to eat a pizza every day for dinner,
which cost $1.50 back at that time when I was a dancer, struggling as an artist."
But while those times were certainly tough, it sounds like she wouldn't change them,
as they're part of what made her the global superstar she is today. She said:
"Those are the years that shape you, right? When you are struggling, you're trying to make it,
you learn resilience, you learn discipline, you learn to not give up, to have faith."
Lopez added she actually found things only got tougher the more successful she became,
because, quote, "there's more pressure, more scrutiny [and] more expectation."
Jennifer Lopez's parents didn't have the traditional happy ending to their romance,
as their union ended in divorce 33 years after they tied the knot. The divorce took its toll on
their daughter, and Lopez struggled to return to their family home after a difficult conversation
about their split. For a 2013 interview with W, she went home for the first time
since her parents called her and her siblings to tell them about their divorce. She said:
"I think that's why I was nervous about coming here today. It's like seeing someone from the
past — you're afraid to run into them because you never know if it's going to be 'wow'
or very difficult. This is a combination of both."
But despite the demise of their marriage, Jennifer doesn't have a bad relationship
with her parents or bad memories of her childhood growing up in the Bronx.
She actually credits her mom, Guadalupe Rodríguez, and dad, David Lopez, for her strong work ethic,
noting that she learned how to work hard by watching them:
"My dad worked nights, and I was aware of how much he was doing for us. My mom was a
Tupperware lady and also worked at the school. I always felt that I couldn't let them down."
Jennifer Lopez has made no secret of her close relationship with her family members,
and was left devastated after her aunt Rose died in 2019. She shared a heartbreaking
and touching tribute to her aunt — who she affectionately referred to as Titi Rose — on
Instagram in August of that year, where she told fans how much she loved and admired her.
Lopez shared her admiration for her aunt’s long marriage to her uncle, next to whom Rose was laid
to rest. She wrote that the late couple's three children were her closest cousins growing up,
and told fans that they had such a close bond that she considered them to be sisters.
"I have so many emotions as I write this. About how fierce,
tough and unapologetically herself [Rose] was [...] she taught me what it was to be
a hard-working woman [...] she, like the other women I was fortunate enough to be raised by
taught me to be independent and unafraid of life and what it would bring!"
Jennifer Lopez is one of the most famous Latinx stars in the world,
but she admitted there was a time she didn't know if she'd ever be cast in a role that wasn't
a stereotype. Speaking to Zane Lowe on At Home With Apple Music, she said she used
to wonder what her acting career would look like because she didn't want to be typecast as, quote,
"the Latin woman in the Latin role where you think I should play — the cook or the nanny or something
like that." She said she wanted to represent, quote, "everybody and make everybody see that
it didn't matter if you were Latin or black or Asian or whatever. You're a human being."
In 2019, Lopez told Variety she was pigeonholed early in her career.
"Maybe 30 years ago, it was very 'Oh, you're the Latin girl. You'll do Spanish roles;
you'll play maids; you'll only be limited to this little box.'"
But she credited her strong team and her work ethic for breaking down those barriers,
allowing her to take on more varied characters. Her role in 1997's “Selena” — about late singer
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez — led to her breakthrough, as she said the movie,
quote, "made the impact that it needed to make" in helping her to be seen as
more than a stereotype while also inspiring people, particularly in the Latinx community.
Jennifer Lopez has been the victim of abuse in more than one past relationship.
She wrote in her 2013 memoir True Love:
"I've never gotten a black eye or busted lip, but I have been in relationships where I felt
abused one way or another – mentally, emotionally, verbally. I know what it
feels like for your soul to be diminished by the way your loved one is treating you."
Lopez suggested she didn't know her worth at the time, admitting:
"Every day that you don't walk out that door, every day you accept things in
your partner and in yourself, is a day that you're saying, 'It's OK.'"
The star has since worked hard to keep her mind as healthy as her body and uses therapy to help
herself get stronger. Lopez has been going to therapy since her early 30s and shared
that it helped her to learn how to love herself properly. She said on Coach Conversations in 2021:
"I was doing all these things in [...] my personal relationships that didn't
seem like I was loving myself, but I didn't even understand the concept of
it. It took time and it's a journey and it's still a journey for me."
Jennifer Lopez has gotten very candid about her heartbreaking split from singer Marc Anthony.
The former couple wed in 2004 and welcomed their fraternal twins,
Max and Emme, in 2008, but confirmed they were going their separate ways in July
2011. Anthony was the one to file for divorce in April 2012.
In her 2013 documentary, Dance Again, J.Lo confessed how much she struggled
after they went their separate ways, and how it affected her work:
"Work is a blessing and a curse, at that moment. I remember being on the
set and being in my dressing room and not feeling like I could get up in the morning."
Lopez said that it felt as though her, quote,
"whole life had fallen apart" when they split, adding:
"What I had known for seven or eight years with my children and everything,
it was just: boom. An explosion."
Though the divorce was her third, the star never imagined her romance with Anthony not working
out — and it was made all the harder because they share children. She tearfully admitted:
"My dream was for us to always be together. You never want to break up a family."
Jennifer Lopez hasn't had the best luck in her love life. Before divorcing Marc Anthony in 2014,
she was married to Ojani Noa from 1997 until 1998, and Chris Judd from 2001 until 2002. Things didn't
end too well with Noa, as he tried to write a tell-all about their romance. Lopez managed
to keep her private life under wraps, blocking it following a legal battle, according to Daily Mail.
The star also had bad luck with boyfriends. Lopez and ex-boyfriend P. Diddy got into
some hot water in 1999 after they left a party that was derailed by gunfire.
As New York recounted, police found a loaded gun in the then-couple's car.
Lopez was cleared, but police detained Diddy, who was later acquitted. She then went on to
get engaged to Ben Affleck in 2002, but split with him mere days before their 2004 wedding.
Lopez has also suffered through cheating rumors. A People source claimed in 2016
that she called it quits with longtime boyfriend Casper Smart after he allegedly cheated on her.
She then became engaged to Alex Rodriguez in 2019, who was also hit with allegations of infidelity.
Both Lopez and Rodriguez denied the claims and insisted they were working on the relationship,
but the pair split for good via a joint statement to Today on April 15, 2021.
Even Jennifer Lopez isn't immune to bullying. The superstar has been subject to a barrage of
vicious comments over the years, and hasn't made a secret about how the negativity affected her,
before she learned how to ignore it. She confessed in an interview with “Marie Claire” in 2018:
"In the early part of my career [...] it made me feel really bad about myself. My first song went
to no. 1, my first album went to no. 1, and my first movie went to no. 1, and I was like 'yeah,
I'm killin' it.' And then everyone was like 'she can't sing, she can't dance,
she can't act — she's just a pretty face' or 'her butt is
big,' or whatever they were saying about me [...] It really hurt me for a long time."
Lopez's former fiancé Ben Affleck also spoke out about the hate he saw her receive during
their relationship. On a 2021 episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast,
he said, quote, "people were so f------ mean about [Jennifer]" and accused the
tabloids in particular of writing sexist and racist things about her. He continued:
"Ugly, vicious s---- was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now
you would literally be fired for saying those things."
A few years after her breakthrough success with “Selena”, Jennifer Lopez had what she described
as a, quote, "nervous breakdown" on set in 2001. Lopez was shooting for the drama movie Enough and
found herself suddenly hit with an unexpected wave of emotion. She told Daily Beast in 2008:
"I was like, I don't want to move. I don't want to talk. I don't want to do anything.
I had a nervous breakdown."
Lopez said there were no telltale signs that it was coming and shared
the terrifying details of how, initially, she had no idea what was happening to her
and had to sit and do nothing in her trailer to calm down.
"It's funny what tricks your mind plays on you. I just didn't want people to think I
was falling apart. But when I look back on it now
it's so odd to me that those are the words I chose to say: 'I am not weak.'"
She recalled how her bodyguard had to put her in the car and she went straight to the doctor,
who diagnosed her as being sleep-deprived and overworked. The doctor tried to prescribe
her pills, though she declined them, and Lopez was told not to go back to the set
until she'd had two days of sleep. She did, and, fortunately, the superstar was okay.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health,
please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741,
or call the National Alliance on Mental Illness Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at www.thehotline.org.