Jennifer Lopez has revealed she gave herself a blunt wake-up call following her divorce from Ben Affleck, saying she told herself she needed to “figure herself out” as she worked through the split.
The Mother star appeared on the SmartLess podcast on June 15 to promote her Netflix rom-com Office Romance, briefly reflecting on her divorce from the Gone Girl actor and noting major life changes in recent years, including moving into a new home.
"What happened?" Hayes, 55, asked, to laughter from Lopez and Hayes' cohosts.
"That's for a different time," Lopez responded, with a laugh.
She added, "You come over, we have a glass of wine, you come to the new house. It's amazing. I built my little corner of the world dream house, I got my kids some horses, we have stables. I was like, 'Please come home, please come back home to your horses. There's horses here.'”
Lopez said she has been going through “a very emotional time” in recent months, noting that her children, Emme and Max, are preparing to start college at the end of the summer.
She reflected on a period of major change in her life, saying the past few years have been a difficult but healing journey that helped her rediscover herself after a long stretch of personal upheaval.
The Unstoppable star added, "The person I am today is so different than the person I was even two years ago, it's crazy. And now I can really look at my life, appreciate it for what it is and what I've created for myself and be really happy."
J.Lo also noted that there have been times in her life where she felt "like my life blew up in my own face," without naming specific moments.
She said she reflected on her past experiences, acknowledging that both her choices and personal patterns contributed to the situations she faced, and that she ultimately had to pause and reassess what was happening in her life.
Lopez added, "And after my last divorce, I just sat there and I was like, I canceled my tour and I sat there and I was just like, 'You need to f---ing figure yourself out. What is going on with you? Forget about everybody else. There's nobody to blame here except yourself, in a certain way.'"
To note, Lopez and Affleck first dated and were engaged in the early 2000s before splitting in 2004, later rekindling their romance in 2021 and marrying in 2022.
She filed for divorce in 2024, and the pair finalized it in January 2025, though they have remained on friendly terms.
