Jennifer Lopez is still promoting The Backup Plan, which didn’t fare too well at the US box office and was bested on its opening week by How to Train Your Dragon, already in its fourth week at that time. The film cost $35 million to make and has only grossed $23 million in two weeks. Some outlets are asking where Lopez’s career can go from here. The Backup Plan is out in the UK on May 7, so Lopez is dutifully giving interviews overseas. She spoke to Marie Claire UK and again she’s kind of impressing me with how down to earth and normal she sounds. The twins have definitely humanized her, but the fact is that she isn’t in as much demand anymore and she just can’t be the exacting diva she once was.

J.Lo talked about her two of her exes, Diddy and Ben Affleck, and said she wishes them well and will exchange pleasantries with “Sean” when she runs into him. It doesn’t sound like she’s on as good terms with Affleck, who canceled their wedding at the last minute, but she doesn’t talk smack about him either. She also addresses the diva stories about her earlier career, and she’s hardly convincing when she tries to explain it as people trying to “make you comfortable.” I love how she explains how she eats and just says she eats what she wants in very small portions. That’s realistic and a much better way to deal with food than going on fasts and cleanses like so many other celebrities. She also talks about how she got together with Marc Anthony, and seems to conveniently forget that he was married with two young sons at home when their relationship revved into full gear.

Jennifer on her exes
The tabloid response to the Bennifer phenomenon made it seem like it was just another arm of Lopez Enterprises. Inside, however, Jennifer says it was very real.

‘The tabloids covered those times heavily, but when I look back I know those were real parts of my life. That’s what maybe confused people – it seemed like something that was made up and crazy, but there was real genuine feeling in all those relationships.’

Does she keep in touch or follow their careers?
‘Would I see a movie of Ben’s? Sure! Why not? I haven’t seen him or talked to him in a while – our lives went in two very different directions. But I always wish him the best and I always thought he was a great person. And Sean – I’ve run into him once or twice, with Marc, and it’s always very friendly. He asks about the twins because he has twins too. Again, I always wish him the best.’…

On her reputation as a diva
We talk about her reputation as something of a diva. A week earlier, at the marie claire cover shoot, there had been much delicious speculation as to exactly which Jennifer Lopez would turn up on the day. One of the studio technicians claimed he’d worked with her ten years previously, when, she allegedly demanded four separate rooms for changing, each adorned with a different type of particular flower. In the event she arrived accompanied by minimal, was incredibly warm and friendly to all, and, in the afternoon, even brought along her twins to watch their very famous mom in action.

So was there any truth in rumours such as insisting her coffee has to be stirred the right way or her hotel room bed must be strewn with feathers? ‘No!’ she laughs. ‘I mean…. when you’re in our position and working as much as I was at that time people try to make you very comfortable, because you’re the worker – and they want you to keep working.’…

On the frenzied fascination with her curves, her derriere in particular,
Of all the fuss, she recalls: ‘I was always very comfortable with who I was. Confident. I’ve never looked at myself [my body] in a negative way.’

Nowadays she likes to do weights, and run through the horse trails of her new neighbourhood. Then there’s the food…

‘Just like anybody I try to watch what I eat – there’s no big science to it, which is what sucks. One of the good tricks is to have a goal – for me it may be getting in shape for a video shoot. The other is portion control. I love to eat everything and you pretty much can – a little piece of something fattening is not going to kill you. It’s when you eat the whole box that it’s going to kill you. If you can learn to not eat till your stomach feels full and gross, then you can pretty much control your life in that area.’

Had she not had a husband, would she have considered becoming a single mother?
‘For me, I always had the fairy tale in my head where you get married, have kids and do all that kind of stuff,’ she says. ‘But I also think it’s a wonderful thing for women who haven’t had babies and get to a point in their lives and have that option. As a woman, I think it’s the best thing that can ever happen to you.’

On Marc Anthony
Prior to that, the best thing that happened to Jennifer was living her very own Harry Met Sally by navigating that treacherous route from friend to lover with latin singing superstar Marc Anthony, the man who’d been her confidante for many years.

‘I think there was always this very strong chemistry with Marc and I from the very beginning, and he was always letting me know that,’ she says. ‘Since we first met I always felt that, if I got into trouble, he was the one person I could call and he would always be there. That to me is love in its purest form.’

I ask if moving from friend to lover was an awkward journey. She says no, that there was always an attraction there, and lets slip that it wasn’t the first time they’d ever been romantic.

‘We kind of did [get together] in the beginning,’ she admits. ‘We saw each other for a little bit, then kind of went our separate ways for many years because we were both in different places in our lives. Now we have the kind of love with no question mark.’

[From Marie Claire, UK]

In terms of how she met Marc Anthony, the truth is that he was married to the mother of his two sons, Dayanara Torres, at the time. Anthony and Torres had gone through one separation since their marriage in 2000, but had recommitted to their relationship with a commitment ceremony in December, 2002. It was when Anthony collaborated with his old flame Lopez on a music video in 2004 (for Shall We Dance) that he decided to divorce Torres. He married Lopez just a week after his divorce was finalized. In her 2008 self help book, Married to Me: How Committing to Myself Led to Triumph After Divorce, Torres talked about staying in bed for days after Anthony left her, but she never mentioned her ex husband by name or discussed his (alleged) affair with Lopez. There could have been a very good financial reason for her silence.

I’m not hating on Lopez, I’m just putting her words into context. While she may have been single and in a “different place” when she met Anthony, he was married with kids at home and he put all that aside for their “strong chemistry.” It may have been easy for Lopez and Anthony to get together, but it wasn’t painless for the wife and kids he left behind.

The photos below are courtesy Marie Claire UK and used by permission. You can see more photos of Lopez on their website.