The Great Advice JLo Got When She Found Herself Unlucky In Love

Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez) looks worried in Atlas.
(Image credit: Ana Carballosa/Netflix)

While Jennifer Lopez is well known for her professional endeavors, her personal life has also been a significant topic of discussion throughout the course of her decades-long career. Lopez’s love life, in particular, has been a point of emphasis, considering she’s been married four times. The “If You Had My Love” singer occasionally provides insight into her experience with intimate relationships. And, most recently, during a show, Lopez recalled some keen advice she received while she was having trouble in the romance department.

As of late, JLo has been headlining her Las Vegas residency, and she’s been known to make jokes about her divorces during such engagements. The multihyphenate did that again during a recent show, which was attended by Instagram user jpasc24. As seen in a video shared to IG, Lopez quipped that after her third divorce, she “really started getting good at it.” She then chuckled along with the audience before explaining why that was “actually a really tough time” in her life:

I was really about to give up on it all. I mean, I was a single mom with two 3-year-old twins, and I called up one of my mentors. Her name was Louise Hay. Some of you might know who she was.

It goes without saying that JLo has seen her share of ups and downs within the realm of romance. As she further explained during her recent show, Hay – a well-known motivational speaker – provided some serious words of wisdom. Apparently, Lopez’s confidante was able to relate her lack of luck in love to one of her personal passions:

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She said to me, ‘Jennifer, you’re a dancer, right?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And she said, ‘When you’re learning a dance, and you get the steps wrong, what do you do?’ I said, ‘I just keep going until I get the steps right.’ And she said, ‘That’s right, Jennifer. Always keep dancing.’

At the core of that message is the notion of perseverance (which is something that I can say has served me well in my own life). Kudos to Hay, who passed away at the age of 90 in 2017, for encouraging JLo to keep moving forward.

Lopez was initially married to Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998 and, in 2001, she married Cris Judd, who she divorced in 2003. The Mother star’s longest marriage to date was to singer Marc Anthony, who she was wed to from 2004 to 2014. Lopez and Anthony also share those two twins she mentioned, now 18-year-old Max and Emme (who will be heading off to college later this year). Lopez’s fourth marriage was to Ben Affleck (who she was engaged to years ago), and the two married in 2022 and finalized their divorce in January 2025.

Although Lopez isn’t always keen on discussing her divorce from Affleck, she appears to be doing well in the aftermath of their split. By August 2025, she said she’d been enjoying herself amid what she referred to as her “Summer of Freedom.” An insider also reported that past January that Lopez was feeling “happy and content” around a year after splitting from her latest hubby.

It’s unclear if Jennifer Lopez will seek love again but, in the meantime, she seems to have gained some perspective from her experiences. And, should she decide to put herself out there again, it wouldn’t be surprising if she decided to once again lean on the advice she received from her late mentor.

Erik Swann
Senior Content Producer

Erik Swann is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He began working with the publication in 2020 when he was hired as Weekend Editor. Today, he continues to write, edit and handle social media responsibilities over the weekend. On weekdays, he also writes TV and movie-related news and helps out with editing and social media as needed. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. After shifting into multi-platform journalism, he started working as a freelance writer and editor before joining CB. Covers superheroes, sci-fi, comedy, and almost anything else in film and TV. He eats more pizza than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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