Jennifer Lopez says therapy taught her about self-love: 'It's still a journey for me'

Jennifer Lopez has learned a lot about herself in therapy.

On Friday, the singer and actress, 51, sat down for a virtual conversation with purpose coach Jay Shetty in the first edition of Coach Conversations, a monthly Youtube series by the fashion brand, to reflect on life lessons, including self love.

"I remember when I was going through therapy at the beginning, you know, kind of in my late 30s and there was a lot of talk about loving yourself and I was like, 'I love myself,'" Lopez told Shetty. “But obviously I was doing all these things in like my personal relationships that didn't seem like I was loving myself, but I didn't even understand the concept of it. It took time and it's a journey and it's still a journey for me."

While Lopez didn’t specify which relationships were problematic, she married singer Marc Anthony in 2004, (the same year she and fiancé Ben Affleck broke up). The former married couple, who share 12-year-old twins Max and Emme, announced their split in 2011 and Lopez went on to date choreographer Casper Smart.

Lopez also contemplated a year spent quarantining with fiancé Alex Rodriguez and their combined children. The downtime ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it forced them to take a break from their traditional nonstop schedules.

But Lopez, who said her purpose is to “empower, inspire and entertain,” is still career-minded. Her latest gig, performing at President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, included “America the Beautiful” and Woody Guthrie’s 1944 song “This Land Is Your Land.” Making the performance her own, Lopez added a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, and a line from her classic hit “Let’s Get Loud.”

Lopez still kept it humble, admitting that when she started her career as a dancer, she wasn’t entirely confident about her skills. “I wasn’t always the best dancer — I was a great dancer but I wasn’t the best dancer —and everybody is so competitive in these fields, but I knew from the beginning because of that, I put something extra into it,” she said. “I put my heart into it, I put my soul into it. Into each move, there was a purpose behind it.”

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