Jennifer Lopez said she has never felt truly loved by a partner, despite multiple long-term relationships and marriages, during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" on Wednesday.
Asked by host Howard Stern whether she has "truly been loved," Lopez paused before answering, "No," adding that she has, however, "experienced truly loving someone else."
The 56-year-old singer and actor said she came to understand that her past partners were "not capable" of the kind of love she sought.
"What I learned, it's not that I'm not lovable — it's that they're not capable. … They don't have it in them," Lopez said.
"And they gave me what they had. They gave me all of it, every time. All the rings, all the things I could ever want. The houses, the rings, the marriage. All of it. But …"
Lopez, who has been married and divorced four times, most recently to actor Ben Affleck, said part of the difficulty stemmed from her own lack of self-love.
"When I got divorced this last time, it was the best thing that ever happened to me," she said.
"Because it really made me journey into — I mean, I had a religious coach, I had a therapist, a couple's therapist, an individual therapist, I had a coach to understand addiction."
"I had everything. I was like, 'I'm gonna f***in' figure this s*** out if it kills me.'"
Through that process, Lopez said she realized that "the core of the thing is you — it's nobody else."
She described feeling more secure and grounded after examining her upbringing and personal history.
"Now, I'm able to sit here in a much more self-assured, self-aware way of the things that have happened to me, whether my mother, my father, in my own life, how I learned to love, how I felt neglected — all the things that are in your head as a person — and know who I am and just really appreciate that person," Lopez said.
"[I] feel really comfortable and good in being myself, all the good parts and all the kind of complicated things."
When Stern asked if she had experienced that level of connection with another person, Lopez replied, "Glimpses."
Stern responded, "I wish that for you," and she thanked him.
Affleck, 53, who produced Lopez's upcoming film "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and attended its New York premiere with her earlier this month, spoke in March about their separation.
He told GQ that Lopez is "somebody I have a lot of respect for" and that their breakup involved "no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue."
"There's a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something," Affleck said.
"But honestly … the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting. … It's just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.