Jennifer Lopez opens up about her struggles after 'painful' heartbreak

In a new interview with Apple Music 1, the JLo reflected on her rekindled romance with the actor Ben Affleck and recalled the pain she felt after they ended their first engagement in 2004.

“It was so painful after we broke up,” Lopez, 53, told host Zane Lowe. “Once we called off that wedding 20 years ago, it was the biggest heartbreak of my life. I honestly felt like I was going to die.”

She continued, “It sent me on a spiral for the next 18 years where I just couldn’t get it right. But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending. It has the most ‘would never happen in Hollywood’ ending.”

Lopez also touched up on her forthcoming album that This Is Me... Now, which she announced on Friday, November 25th, on the 20th anniversary of her album This Is Me... Then.

Lopez shared that her record from 20 years ago “captured a time where” she “fell in love with the love of [her] life.”

And while the singer went on to release several albums after the plot, she admitted that didn’t feel creatively as inspired as she did. “I didn't make music in that way that I did in 2002 until now...”

However, the “painful” breakup made it hard for her to sing those songs afterwards. "I wouldn't even perform these records. It was so painful after we broke up," she recalled.

Affleck and Lopez, or 'Bennifer’, as they were dubbed by the press, first met in 2002 on the set of their movie Gigli, which came out the following year. In the same year, Lopez released her album, This Is Me... Then.

The duo were engaged until 2004 before splitting up, rekindling their romance in 2021 and ultimately getting married in Las Vegas in July.