Jennifer Lopez turns 54 this Monday, July 24. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents, the artist grew up in the Bronx (New York) and studied at Preston High School, where she was a member of the soccer team and competed at the national level. However, despite her ability for sports, her dream was to be an actress.
When she talked to her parents about the possibility of dedicating herself to the world of acting, they flatly refused and tried to get the idea out of her head. This discrepancy made Lopez decide to become independent and move to Manhattan, where she trained in dancing, singing and acting. At the age of 17, she got a role in the movie My Little Girl and she also participated in a Broadway musical with which she performed throughout Europe.
Her time in Japan, where she worked as a singer, choreographer and dancer for the Synchroncity series, was a boost to her career. Upon returning to the United States, she joined as a dancer for New Kids on the Block and later moved to Los Angeles, where she was one of the dancers on the comedy show In Living Color. She also at that time she danced for Janet Jackson. It was at this time that she decided to have her own career, which she took off in 1997 when she played the singer Selena Quintanilla in the movie Selena.
For this role, she earned her first Golden Globe nomination for best actress and became one of the new promises of Hollywood. It didn’t take long for her to combine her career as an actress with that of a singer, where in 1999 she debuted with the song If You Had My Love at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
If there is a significant moment in Lopez’s career, it is the look she wore at the Grammy Awards in 2000. Her iconic dress, known as the Jungle Dress, by Versace became part of fashion history. Her jungle print, transparencies and endless neckline caused such a sensation that Google was forced to create its Google Images tab.
As she herself explained, this garment was chosen at the last minute because at that time she was in the process of shooting Wedding Plans, her film with Matthew McConaughey. Jennifer did not have time to do costume tests and her stylist selected a couple of dresses for her: one white and another very daring that Donatella Versace and Geri Halliwell had already worn on a red carpet. Although the stylist recommended that she wear the design that had never been seen before at an event, the actress opted for the sensual Versace dress, and she was not wrong.
The election marked the beginning of the Jennifer phenomenon until it became a fashion icon. It was such a sensation that she caused her dress that in 2019 she paraded for the Italian house, in the middle of Milan Fashion Week, with a version of the green patterned design that starred in Versace’s spring / summer 2020 collection.
Lopez has one of the most chameleon-like styles in Hollywood. As designer Diane von Furstenberg said: “Jennifer Lopez’s style is bold, uninhibited and always memorable.” Her presence on red carpets never goes unnoticed and she dares with all trends, from openings to see-throughs.
The artist can boast of having an enviable career, with a dozen albums and more than thirty films. In addition, in 2020 she starred with Shakira in one of the most remembered and applauded shows of the Super Bowl, in fact, many consider it the best show of the half of the competition.
Jennifer’s private life is perhaps one of the most followed by the heart press. When she became known in Hollywood, she was married to the Cuban Ojani Noa. A first marriage that did not last long, since in 1998 they divorced. It was then that she began a relationship with rapper Sean Combs (Puff Daddy), with whom she was involved in a shootout.
They broke up at the end of 2000 and in September 2001 Jennifer married her dancer Cris Judd for the second time, but the relationship did not last long and in mid-2002 the breakup occurred.
Soon after, she met Ben Affleck, her great love. The couple, known as Bennifer, was one of the most persecuted by the paparazzi in 2002 and 2003, in fact, the artist inspired the Jenny from the block video clip on what their relationship was like and the daily harassment of photographers. They starred in a movie together, Gigli, and they were engaged but the wedding never came.
It took almost twenty years for the couple to meet again. A piece of news that unleashed the madness of the media, who did not believe this reconciliation that ended in a double wedding last summer: a surprise in Las Vegas, days before Lopez’s birthday, and a second in his Georgia mansion where they planned to get married in 2003.
A second chance that came after Jennifer’s marriage to Marc Anthony -with whom she had her two children Max and Emme- and Affleck’s wedding to Jennifer Garner -with whom she shares three children Violet, Seraphina and Sam-. After divorcing the singer, Lopez had a relationship with the dancer Casper Smart and, later, with Alex Rodríguez, with whom she became engaged.
