J. Lo Gives 1st Interview After Divorce: 'My Whole F---ing World Exploded'

Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck. Getty Images (2)

acknowledged her and ’s divorce in a new interview.

“I think my whole life I’ve just been trying to say I’m good enough, until where I am now, when I know. I’m giving myself credit. I’m telling that little girl that grew up in the Bronx, ‘You’ve done really good for yourself.’ I didn’t do that for so many years,” Lopez, 55, told in a conversation for Interview magazine published on Wednesday, October 9. “And now I think, with everything that’s happened in my life and in my relationships and even in my career, it’s like, give yourself a bit of comfort and love. We’ve been through a lot of things that nobody knows about, and you’ve persevered and you refuse to give up and to let it get you down.”

She added: “There’s something to be said for that because things can really change your life in a way that you do want to give up and say, “F— this, this is too hard, I don’t want to do this anymore.” But I’m not there. I refuse to not give myself everything that little girl deserves.”

Lopez noted that being a mother of 16-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with her ex-husband , and recent projects such as the film Unstoppable helped her self-esteem.

Related: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez‘s Relationship TimelineThe word “Bennifer” might include flashbacks to frosted lip gloss and butterfly clips, but everything comes back in style eventually. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez got back together nearly 20 years after their romance first took the world by storm. The pair first connected in 2002 on the set of the ill-fated Gigli. The movie […]

“With This Is Me … Now and the project you mentioned earlier, I felt like, whoa, I got here. I’m good,” she stated. “I did all the work and look where I am, and then it was like my whole f—ing world exploded.”

After months of split speculation, Us Weekly confirmed that Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck, 52, on August 20 after two years of marriage. She listed the pair’s date of separation as April 26 and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their separation. Lopez also requested to drop “Affleck” from her last name and restore her legal name to Jennifer Lynn Lopez.

Lopez filed her divorce docs on the anniversary of her and Affleck’s second wedding ceremony. The estranged spouses tied the knot in front of friends and family in Georgia in August 2022 after secretly getting married in Las Vegas one month prior.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

“Sometimes, Nikki, it’s going to work out great. And sometimes it won’t. And that’s f—ing OK, too,” she told Glaser, 40, of her personal and professional ups and downs. “I was thinking about this time in my life, and I’m like, ‘That’s not what I thought it was going to turn out like.’ And then I thought, ‘No, this is exactly where I needed to be, to lead me to where I want to go.’”

The Grammy nominee said she’s “excited” by the idea of being on her own, stating, “Yes, I’m not looking for anybody, because everything that I’ve done over the past 25, 30 years, being in these different challenging situations, what can I f—ing do when it’s just me flying on my own — What if I’m just free?”

Related: Celebrity Splits of 2024: Stars Who Have Called It Quits This YearSome celebrity couples have gone the distance, but others haven’t been as lucky. 2024 kicked off with a handful of Hollywood duos calling it quits. Fans were shocked when The Bachelorette couple Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo split after four years of marriage. Us Weekly confirmed on January 2 that the chiropractor filed for divorce […]

In the interview, Lopez said “there’s no new bar” when it comes to eventually looking for new romantic partners. “For people who are romantics and love being in relationships and want to grow old with somebody, we think, “’ have to have that to be whole and happy.’ And you don’t,” she said before joking, “It only took 30 years.”

Lopez was previously married to from 1997 to 1998, from 2001 to 2003 and Anthony, 56, from 2004 to 2014. She and Affleck dated for two years before calling it quits in 2004 and rekindled their relationship in 2021.

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The exes were spotted grabbing lunch with their children in Los Angeles last month, after which a source exclusively told Us that their divorce proceedings were “still going forward” despite the reunion. (Affleck shares three children with his ex-wife .)

Related: What Jennifer Lopez Has Said About Love and RomancePresley Ann/Getty Images Jennifer Lopez has had love on the brain through the years — regardless of her relationship or marital status. During a 2024 appearance on Carrie & Tommy’s Australian radio show, Lopez called herself “more of a love addict or a workaholic than everything else.” Before she was a household name, Lopez’s first […]

“When they’re together as a family and see the kids together, it reminds them of how good they are as a team and what’s important,” the insider shared, noting the pair have been struggling with “lingering doubts” and “hesitation” about the divorce.

A second source added: “They both know they will be in each other’s lives because of the kids and are remaining friendly. But the divorce is still happening.”

In this articleBen AffleckJennifer Lopez