Jennifer Lopez is getting real about the not-so-finer moments in her love life.
“Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,” Lopez, 54, said in her new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which drops on Prime Video Monday, February 26. “I mean, I was never in a relationship where I got beat up like that, but I’ve definitely been manhandled, and there’s been a couple of unsavory things.”
Lopez was referring to a scene in her visual concept album This Is Me … Now: A Love Story, which dropped earlier this month. During the section soundtracked by her song “Rebound,” Lopez’s character, The Artist, is talking with her love interest, played by Gilbert Saldivar.
In the conversation, The Artist calls him “meticulous” and “particular,” and he doesn’t take it well. She explains she didn’t mean anything bad by the description, but the boyfriend refuses to hear her out and gets visibly upset. As he argues with her, the tension escalates, and he eventually grabs her and throws her up against a glass wall.
After filming that intense scene, Lopez said she was grateful that nothing that serious happened in her prior relationships. She did, however, hint that there were some “disrespectful” incidents in her past.
While Lopez didn’t refer to any of her exes by name, she has had her fair share of relationships. The Hustlers actress has tied the knot four times. She was previously married to Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998 and Cris Judd from 2001 to 2003.
In 2004, she wed Marc Anthony, with whom she shares twins Max and Emme, 16. The exes separated in 2011 and finalized their divorce three years later. Following their breakup, Lopez opened up about how she knew that their marriage wasn’t “the right thing.”
“When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness,” she said in an April 2016 interview with W magazine. “It wasn’t the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment and anger. But Marc is the father of my children, and that’s never going away. So I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do.”
After her split from Anthony, 55, Lopez dated her backup dancer Casper Smart. The pair dated from 2011 to 2016. She later moved on with Alex Rodriguez, and the twosome got engaged in 2019 after dating for two years. After having to postpone their nuptials several times, Rodriguez, 48, and Lopez ultimately called off their engagement in March 2021.
“We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,” the exes said in a joint statement. “We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects. We wish the best for each other and one another’s children. Out of respect for them, the only other comment we have to say is thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and support.”
Lopez finally found true love with former flame Ben Affleck. The couple, lovingly dubbed Bennifer, famously got engaged in 2002 and broke up two years later. Lopez and Affleck, 51, reconnected in March 2021 and got engaged for a second time in April 2022. The pair walked down the aisle three months later.
Her new album, This Is Me … Now and its accompanying film serve as a sequel to her 2002 album, This Is Me … Then, which was released at the height of her initial romance with Affleck.
“For all those years, it was really hard,” Lopez recalls in the documentary. “Because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life, I felt like I lost, like, the best friend that I ever had. And I couldn’t talk to him for so many years, and that was the hardest part.”
