Although she's probably still better known for dating Ben Affleck and Puffy Combs, Jennifer Lopez was a three-time loser at marriage before she finally found a keeper in fellow Nuyorican Marco Antonio Muniz, aka Marc Anthony. Let's see, as a teenager, she tied the knot briefly with David Cruz, a production assistant. In 1997, she again exchanged vows with Ojani Noa, a model.
More recently, she was married to choreographer Chris Judd in a union which lasted a little over a year. But the peripatetic pop diva has finally met her match in the sultry salsa singer she secretly wed on June 4th, 2004, just three days after he'd obtained a quickie divorce in the Dominican Republic.
Though he left a couple of kids behind, including a newborn baby, Marc is banking on his blushing Borinquen bride's interest in having kids of her own. The Roamin' Romeo also supports the adorable daughter, Ariana, the product of a passionate affair he had with a New York City cop.
J-Lo, whose acting career had started to nosedive after a couple of lousy outings opposite then boyfriend Ben-Lo in Gigli and Jersey Girl, is bouncing back with Shall We Dance, a winner which ought to re-establish her as an A-list leading lady. Though incommunicado during those dark days, the divine diva is available again and as loose-lipped and as loquacious as ever.
KW: Was it hard to do ballroom dancing in a movie?
JL: "It was as alien as it could be. It was tough for me. I felt like I was from Mars. Being a dancer, naturally, I'm going to be able to do some things, but it's such a different art form from any type of movement I've ever done. From flamenco to ballet to jazz to hip-hop. This was very technical and really challenging."
KW: It seems like you've been insulating yourself from the media lately after a long period during which your face was always splashed across the tabloids and in the gossip columns.
JL: "That feels like a thousand years ago. Is there such a thing as insularity from the media? I don't know. As much as I try, I haven't been able to achieve that. I'm trying different tactics now. See, I'm trying a new approach."
KW: Are you avoiding the limelight?
JL: "I'm just trying to get the focus back on what I do as an artist and away from what I do when I'm at home. Maybe it's The Bronx in me, but I always had this attitude where I was very open. I'm a free spirit by nature. So, I didn't think about a lot of things and I refused to let the business change me into a reclusive, private person. But as you get older, you realize you have to set boundaries. You have to."
KW: Do you think your press built to an all-time high last year?
JL: "It definitely reached a fever pitch, but I don't have to tell you that. There was a time, and not just last year, where it was just out of my control. It was like, 'Who is that thing that has become me?' I didn't like it."
KW: What has been your greatest challenge?
JL: "I think the biggest challenge I've been facing the last couple of years has been keeping an image away from the artist. Do you know what I mean? Separating the actual work away from the person. I think it was so much more sexy back in the day when it was more about the work than people's personal lives. I hate to say it, but it was controlled a little bit more by the studio system, and there was a mystery to our stars then. You had that illusion. You didn't know who they were dating, or if they were married, or what was happening. It didn't matter to the work that you do. But it does now. and that's been the biggest challenge for me, to keep the work separate from what's going on image-wise."
KW: Was Gigli flopping upsetting to you?
JL: "I don't look at Gigli the way I think the rest of the world looks at Gigli. It's not about money, being the biggest box-office hit or whether people consider it the best movie. I gauge my success on whether or not I have done my job and how well I did it. I consider that movie a success in that sense. I went in there with a certain amount of material that I could work with and I did the best I could."
KW: Do you have any plans to work with your husband, afterall, he's a singer-turned-actor also?
JL: "He's producing my Spanish album, and we did a duet on his new album."
KW: How do you feel about kids and being around children?
JL: "I love kids. I always have. When things get really crazy, I like to think that they're the best. They make it all worthwhile. A lot of the entertainment I do is for kids."
KW: Are you planning to have kids of your own soon?
JL: "Yeah, that's something I've always said, that I want children. I don't know. I just feel that God will bless me when the time is right. We'll see what happens, but that's something I definitely want in my life. I miss that."
KW: What are you most grateful for?
JL: "I'm grateful for love, most of all, because I have a lot of it in my life."
KW: Do you get to go out in public and just be Jenny from the block anymore?
JL: "It's different on different days. I don't do it that much. Usually, I'll be out in a car, or whatever, and I 'll go exactly where I want to go. I'll go to a store and come out. I miss walking around so much, when I ride in a car, I'll literally stick my head outside, like a dog, and let the air hit me, because I don't get to do that all the time."
KW: Shall We Dance is about love. Tell me about your first love?
JL: "I was about 16 when I met him. David and I dated for like nine or ten years during high school till I was about 24. He's still a friend, though I haven't spoken to him in about a year and a half. He still lives in the Castle Hill neighborhood where I grew up. He probably knows me better than anybody else."
KW: Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?
JL: "I went to church every Sunday and to Catholic school for 12 years. Now I don't do that much anymore, but I 've also explored different spiritual philosophies on my own. I do pray a lot and know that there is a force in the world, an energy, and if you put out good, and put out love, it comes back to you."