Jennifer Lopez's Realest Quotes About Love & Relationships

Since her debut album, "On the 6," was released in 1999, Jennifer Lopez has proven that she knows a thing or two about love and relationships. Moreover, she knows how to put those sentiments into chart-climbing music. From her debut single "If You Had My Love," to 2024's "This Is Me... Now," Lopez has never failed to deliver on producing music that moves people.

But it's not just Lopez's music that makes people stand up and take notice — her love life does too. Although she's been married four times, her relationship with Ben Affleck garnered the most attention. After all, how many couples fall in love, get engaged, call it quits, then rekindle their relationship a whopping 20 years later, and then finally tie the knot? Not many, hence the reason why the relationship has been painted in the media as some sort of epic love story — until recently. These days, the press has turned its back on the couple and has been feeding the rumor mill instead.

Although recent sightings of Lopez reveal the face of a woman who's definitely in the thick of something difficult, she's still someone who believes in love — so much so that she titled her 2014 memoir, "True Love." What will become of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck is anyone's guess and no one's business. But if Lopez stays true to herself and her beliefs about love, she'll come out the other side of all this stronger than she could have imagined.

In February 2022 while promoting her film, "Marry Me," Lopez sat down with the New York Times to not only discuss the movie, but also her relationship with Affleck. "You have to do what feels good to you all the time. But at the same time, you learn from the past, you do things better the second time," Lopez said. "There's a part of it that, yes, we're together. But there's a part of it that's not, you know, being so open the way we were when we were so young and in love many years ago. When you're in things, you do what feels right. And I don't beat myself up over 'I wish I had done this differently' or 'Did I do too much?' That's what was comfortable at the time. I did what I did. [Affleck] did what he did. And it was fine. The relationship stuff had nothing to do with being public or not being public."

In February 2024, Lopez appeared on Australia's "Kyle and Jackie O Radio Show." During the podcast, she promoted her latest album and talked about the importance of timing and knowing who you are, for a relationship to work. "I fell in love with the love of my life [earlier in life] and for whatever reasons, we needed to grow and do other things," she said. "We both went off and had children with other people and other relationships, but you know in my mind I kind of had it like, 'Oh, that was kind of the one.'"

After enough time had passed and Lopez felt good in her skin, that's when she knew that she and Affleck were going to have another chance at love. "That's when the universe kind of opened up to me and was like, 'OK, now you're ready,'" she said. "I couldn't believe it and I don't think he could either. It's not something we ever planned. We really had moved on with our lives but when we reconnected, it was almost instant and we just knew."

"I honestly believe that love rules all," Lopez told People in February 2022. "Love always conquers everything — relationships, kids, work, work relationships. It's all about how loving, open and accepting you can be. Not having an ego about things and just embracing all the good, always looking at the positive ... To see the person, the human being, the man that [Affleck] is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is — he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be." 

But Lopez didn't stop there, explaining what she wants her children to understand about love and take away from her relationship with Affleck. After admitting love stories can be a "tricky thing," Lopez said, "What I can teach my children is that real love exists. Some things can be forever, but it doesn't mean they just have a straight line."

In her 2014 book, "True Love," Lopez got brutally honest about love and heartbreak, and its impact on her not just as a human being, but as an artist. By the time the book had been released, not only had she already endured the breakup with Affleck, but as she was wrapping up the editing process her marriage to Marc Anthony was coming to an end. The two would ultimately divorce the same year "True Love" was published. 

"As painful as some of the past year's changes have been, they will ultimately lead to a better place," wrote Lopez. "The adversity you come across in life may cause pain, but with pain comes growth and the opportunity to rise to the occasion as your strongest, best self ... Sometimes they came from unexpected sources — a song, a challenge, or a friend. It was my responsibility to make the most of them, apply them to my life, act on them, and rise to the occasion."

After Affleck and Lopez called off their engagement in January 2004, just a few months after postponing their 2003 wedding, Lopez wasn't single for long. In less than six months, she married fellow singer Marc Anthony in June 2004. They would be married until 2014.

In November 2014, Lopez sat down with Maria Shriver and Today to talk about why she moved on so quickly and, despite being married and sharing two kids with Anthony, what the rushed relationship taught her. "It was probably my first big heartbreak [talking about Affleck], and to have one of my best friends who I'd known for years, who I actually love and did have chemistry with, come into my life and say, 'I'm here' ... The first person who shows up and gives me a little comfort and gives me a little chemistry, boom, we're in," said Lopez. "What you need to know is, nobody can save you or heal you. Only you can do that for you."