Jennifer Lopez Age, Husband, Boyfriend, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jennifer Lopez

• Lopez grew up in the Castle Hill neighbourhood in the borough of the Bronx in New York City.
  

  Childhood picture of Jennifer Lopez (leftmost) with her parents and sisters

• Her parents, David and Guadalupe, hail from Puerto Rico.

• David initially served in the army, but later, he started working as a computer technician at Guardian Insurance Company.

• Guadalupe was a homemaker for around ten years, and then, she started working as a Tupperware salesperson and a kindergarten and gym teacher.

• Lopez participated in track and field at Preston High School. She would also participate in gymnastics and was on the softball team.
  

  Jennifer Lopez in her teens

• Apart from that, she performed in school musicals. Once she played a lead role in a theatrical production of Godspell.

• Growing up in a Puerto Rican household, Lopez and her sisters used to sing, dance, and create plays for family events.

• She wanted to become an entertainer since childhood. Her passion was fueled by the musical West Side Story, which left a huge impression on her.

• She started taking singing and dancing lessons when she was 5. She learned flamenco, jazz, and ballet at the Ballet Hispanico and the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.

• She also taught dance to younger students. One of her students was Kerry Washington, who later became an actress.

• Lopez moved away from The Bronx when she was 18.

• After her high school graduation, she pursued a part-time secretarial job at a law firm and studied business at New York’s Baruch College for one semester.

• At 18, she became a full-time student at Phil Black Dance Studio in Manhattan. Previously, she had taken night classes in jazz and tap dance.

• Her parents did not like her decision to leave college and pursue a dance career. Angered, her mother asked her to move out of the family home and they did not speak to one another for eight months.

• Lopez was broke for a while and used to sleep on the sofa of her dance studio in Manhattan.

• In 1989, she landed a dancing job and she spent five months touring Europe with the Golden Musicals of Broadway.

• In 1990, she appeared in an episode of Yo! MTV Raps, where she danced alongside MC Hammer.

• She toured Japan for four months as a chorus member in Synchronicity.

• After returning to the United States, she worked as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block’s performance of “Games” at the 1991 American Music Awards.

• Then, she also travelled around America with regional productions of the musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Oklahoma!

• During this period, Lopez also featured as a dancer in music videos of various songs including, Doug E. Fresh’s “Summertime”, Richard Rogers’ “Can’t Stop Loving You”, EPMD’s “Rampage”, and Samantha Fox’s “(Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On”.

• Then, she was cast in her debut TV show, In Living Color.
  

  Lopez (posing at bottom) during her first big break in 1991 as a member of the dance troupe the Fly Girls on the FOX sketch comedy show In Living Color

• Before becoming popular, she used to sing for a band called One.

• Once she danced behind the band The New Kids On The Block.

• Lopez received critical acclamation for portraying the role of Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Pére in the biographical musical drama film Selena (1997).
  

  Poster of Selena (1997)

• She played the lead role of Terri Flores in the American adventure horror film Anaconda (1997). Although the film received negative reviews from critics, it went on to become a box-office success.

• In 1998, Lopez starred in the crime comedy film Out of Sight as Karen Sisco, a role which earned her many accolades.

• She became the highest-paid Latin actress.

• In 1999, she rose to popularity with her debut studio album On the 6, featuring the hit songs If You Had My Love, Waiting for Tonight, and Let’s Get Loud. “If You Had My Love” peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks.

• Lopez started dating Sean Combs after she met him on the set of On the 6.

• In 2001, she starred in the American romantic comedy film The Wedding Planner as Mary Fiore. She was paid $9 million for starring in the film, the highest salary for a Latina actress at the time.
  

  Jennifer Lopez as Mary Fiore The Wedding Planner (2001)

• Around, she released her second studio album J.Lo, which featured the chartbuster songs Love Don’t Cost a Thing and I’m Real.

• The Wedding Planner (2001) and J.Lo led her to become the first woman to have a number-one film and album simultaneously in January 2001.

• Other popular films under her belt are Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), and Monster-in-Law (2005).
  

  Jennifer Lopez as Marisa Ventura in Maid in Manhattan (2002)

• In 2002, Lopez released the remix album ‘J to tha L–O! The Remixes,’ which featured the crowd-puller song “Ain’t It Funny.”

• In the same year, she released her third studio album, This Is Me… Then, which became the first remix album to top the US Billboard 200. The songs “Jenny from the Block” and “All I Have.”

• Her fourth studio album, Rebirth (2005), featured the hit song “Get Right.”

• In 2011, Lopez was back in the spotlight as a judge on the singing reality show American Idol.

• In the same year, she released her seventh studio album “Love?,” which featured the chartbuster song “On the Floor.”
  

  Poster of Jennifer Lopez’s song On the Floor

• In 2013, she sparked controversy by performing for Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who was notorious for committing widespread human rights abuses in the country. Additionally, Lopez’s team was unaware that access to social media and the internet was tightly controlled in Turkmenistan. Her choreographer JR Taylor tweeted,
  

  I wonder where all my Turkmenistan followers are!? Hit me up!”

  The tweet was deleted when reports of Lopez’s controversial performance began to spread.

• She received critical acclamation for playing the role of Ramona Vega in the crime drama Hustlers (2019).
  

• In 2021, she posted a challenge on Twitter to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her single “Love Don’t Cost a Thing.” She recreated a memorable moment from the track’s video by tossing her expensive jewellery, sunglasses, and clothes onto a beach, before swiping away the camera. She asked her fans to post renditions of the same, but the fans were confused about how. Various netizens trolled her for asking them to pull such challenges amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Some said they cannot afford to throw away their valuables on the beach.

•  She does not smoke.

• She enjoys drinking alcoholic beverages occasionally.

• She met Cris Judd, her second husband, at the sets of ‘My Love Don’t Cost a Thing’.

• Her nine-month-long marriage with Judd was considered a publicity stunt by many.

• She lent her voice to the character of Azteca in the animated film Antz (1998).

• Lopez met Ojani Noa (her first husband) in 1997 in Miami while filming for Blood and Wine. At that time, he was working as a waiter. He is Cuban. After their divorce, Lopez hired Noa to manage a restaurant she opened in Los Angeles in 2002. Six months later, she fired him, and he sued her for breach of contract. The lawsuit ended in a settlement and prohibited Noa from publicly revealing intimate details about Lopez for monetary gain. In 2009, Lopez sent cease-and-desist letters to Noa to begin production on a mockumentary titled How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J.Lo and Ojani Noa Story. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

• Lopez is the first person to top FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women (UK) list more than once. She was placed at number one in both 2000 and 2001.

• She owns a clothing line called JLo by Jennifer Lopez.

• She also co-owns a production company, Nuyorican Productions, with Benny Medina.

• Her romance started with Ben Affleck when she met him while shooting for the film ‘Gigli’. Ben made a huge gesture by putting an ad in the Hollywood Reporter and said that she is admirable for “graciousness of spirit, beauty in courage, great empathy, astonishing talent, real poise and true grace.” They were called ‘Bennifer’.

• Ben proposed to her with a 6.1-carat pink diamond ring. After they were engaged, JLo wrote a song “Dear Ben” to express her love for him.

• Marc Anthony, her long-time friend that she married, called her Lola.

• JLo turned the role of Sara in the Will Smith-starrer Hitch (2005).

• She was ranked number one on the “Best Bottoms In Hollywood” list of Touch Magazine.

• On 7 November 2007, during the Concierto tour in Miami, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony announced they were pregnant.

• Lopez and Anthony sold the pictures of their fraternal twins, Max and Emme, to People magazine for an alleged $6 million in 2008. The twins appeared on the cover of the March 2008 issue when they were four weeks old.

• Lopez took a career break giving birth to twins. During this time, her restaurant Madre’s and two fashion lines closed permanently.

• She rehired her former manager Medina and released two songs, “Louboutins” and “Fresh Out of the Oven,” in 2009 which turned out to be flops on the Billboard charts. This led to Lopez’s departure from Sony Music and Epic Records.

• It was her iconic green Versace dress that led to the invention of Google Images; Lopez wore the gown to the Grammy Awards in February 2000. According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it was the huge search on the internet for photos of the dress that inspired them to invent Google Images. ^[2]BBC
  

  Jennifer Lopez at the Grammy Awards in 2000 wearing the iconic green Versace dress

• On 20 August 2024, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after two years of marriage.