Jennifer Lopez is rethinking how much of her personal life belongs in the public eye.
The 56-year-old singer and actress sat down with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show on October 15 to promote her new film Kiss of the Spider Woman, but the conversation quickly shifted from movies to her history of high-profile relationships.
When Stern asked if she felt her romances were “doomed from the beginning” because of constant public attention, Lopez pushed back.
“No, I don’t feel that,” Lopez said. “I feel that the right person who can handle that… I think I’ve made mistakes in the sense that I live my life very out loud, even though I was in the public eye.”
She admitted that her openness has sometimes hurt her relationships: “I wanted to share my life with someone. I want someone to be there when I’m having my big important moments on the red carpet. I want someone to be there when I’m doing whatever, or when we’re going to the store. Whatever it is, I wanted to share that. So I didn’t hide from it, and I spoke about it.”
That approach has now shifted. Lopez told Stern, “After what’s happened in the past few years to me and my children, I just feel like I want to keep that part so much more quiet in my life.”
She explained that the “tradeoff” of global fame means finding a balance between openness and self-protection: “There are adjustments that you do need to make, because it is a very blessed life. My personal life has suffered at times because of that. You have to change your behavior if you want to have a successful relationship in your life, and that was part of it.”
Lopez’s comments come a little more than a year after her divorce from Ben Affleck, whom she married in July 2022 before splitting in August 2024.
But just days after her radio appearance, Ojani Noa took to Instagram to blast his ex-wife and push back against her narrative. Noa, who was married to Lopez from 1997 to 1998, accused her of rewriting history when she claimed that men from her past were incapable of loving her.
“The problem [is] not us. Not me. The problem [is] you,” Noa wrote. “You the one who couldn’t keep it in your pants. You have been ‘loved’ a few times. You have been married 4 times. And have had countless relationships in between.”
He went on to call himself “honest, faithful… never lied, never cheated,” and alleged Lopez chose “fame and fortune” over their marriage. “You decided to lie, to cheat on me and even though I stayed. I couldn’t stay and deal anymore with the constant lying, that’s why I left you, that’s why I divorced you.”
Noa ended his post by urging Lopez to “tell the truth for once” and labeling her the “problem.”