Jennifer Lopez Almost Quit The Industry Over Constant Scrutiny About Her Personal Life

She says the fixation on her relationships and jokes about her butt “overshadowed” the successes of her career so much that she wanted to quit.

More moments from Jennifer Lopez are coming to light thanks to her Netflix special Halftime. Previously, we highlighted Lopez’s views on her Super Bowl halftime performance alongside Shakira back in 2020, as she expressed in her documentary that she believed it was foolish or the NFL to book two artists for only 12 minutes. The show went on without a hitch, but the behind-the-scenes drama clearly showed that Lopez believed she deserved more time on stage.

It wasn’t just her gripes with the NFL that were a Halftime standout; Lopez also spoke about her body shape, mentioning that the jokes about her backside became antagonizing. “I grew up around women with curves, so it was nothing ever I was ashamed of,” she reportedly stated. “It was hard when you think people think you’re a joke, like you’re a punchline, but I wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended to affect them.”

CONFIG[‘slots’] = CONFIG[‘slots’] || {};
var code = ‘HNHH_desktop_BelowMainPic’;
if (!CONFIG[‘slots’][code]) {
CONFIG[‘slots’][code] = null;
}
googletag.cmd.push(function () {
var code = ‘HNHH_desktop_BelowMainPic’;
CONFIG[‘slots’][code] =
googletag
.defineSlot(‘/3858450/HNHH_desktop_BelowMainPic’, [[300,250],[320,50],[320,100]], code)
.addService(googletag.pubads());

if (CONFIG[‘fillSlotsImmediately’]) {
setTimeout(function () {
googletag.pubads().refresh([CONFIG[‘slots’][‘HNHH_desktop_BelowMainPic’]]);
}, 1000);
}
googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({
// Fetch slots within 5 viewports.
fetchMarginPercent: 0,
// Render slots within 2 viewports.
renderMarginPercent: 25
});
});

CONFIG[‘slots’] = CONFIG[‘slots’] || {};
var code = ‘kargo_embed_unit’;
if (!CONFIG[‘slots’][code]) {
CONFIG[‘slots’][code] = null;
}
googletag.cmd.push(function () {
var code = ‘kargo_embed_unit’;
CONFIG[‘slots’][code] =
googletag
.defineOutOfPageSlot(‘/3858450/kargo_embed_unit’, code)
.addService(googletag.pubads());

if (CONFIG[‘fillSlotsImmediately’]) {
setTimeout(function () {
googletag.pubads().refresh([CONFIG[‘slots’][‘kargo_embed_unit’]]);
}, 1000);
}
googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({
// Fetch slots within 5 viewports.
fetchMarginPercent: 0,
// Render slots within 2 viewports.
renderMarginPercent: 25
});
});

Rich Polk / Stringer / Getty Images

It was also the constant coverage of her personal life that took a toll: she was married to Ojani Noa for less than a year, then dated Diddy for two years, then she was married to her backup dancer Cris Judd for less than a year, then she dated Ben Affleck for two years and the couple was engaged, then she was married to Marc Anthony for 10 years, then she dated her backup dancer Casper Smart for five years, then she dated and was engaged to Alex Rodriguez which was a four-year relationship, and now she’s engaged to Ben Affleck once again 20 years after their first engagement.

“No matter what I achieved, their appetite to cover my personal life overshadowed everything that was happening in my career. I just had a very low self esteem,” Lopez said in the doc. “I really believed a lot of what they said, which was that I wasn’t any good — I wasn’t a good singer, I wasn’t a good actress, I wasn’t a good dancer, I wasn’t good at anything. I just didn’t even belong here why wouldn’t I just go away.”

She also admitted that there were “many times” she wanted to quit the business. Check out the trailer for Halftime below.

[via]