Although she and Ben Affleck were able to rekindle their love and get married, Jennifer Lopez admits it wasn’t easy for her to find love in the past.
In her new documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, Lopez spoke about being “manhandled” while speaking about “unsavory” past relationships.
Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,” Jennifer Lopez explained. “I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God, but I’ve definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things…rough…disrespectful.”
Also speaking to her good friend Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas about the This Is Me… Now project, Lopez said, “More than anything, it’s really a vulnerable place to be in every day. That’s why I go to work every day and I’m like, What am I doing?’”
Goldsmith-Thomas replied, “It’s a personal journey… that will relate to so many women who are abused… You’re talking about how we accept less than we deserve.”
Despite not naming who “manhandled” her in the past, Jennifer Lopez explained that the film is about her love and dating experiences. “There were people in my life who said, ‘I loved you,’ and then didn’t do things that were kind of in line with the word love,” she continued. “You have to hit rock bottom, where you’re in situations that are so uncomfortable and so painful that you finally go, ‘I don’t want this anymore.’”
Lopez further pointed out a remark a therapist once made to her. “ A therapist said to me, ‘What if this was your daughter? What would you do?’ And it was so clear. I was like, I’d tell her, ‘Get the f— out of here, never look back.’”
Jennifer Lopez Admits to Ben Affleck She Was Angry At Him For A Long Time
Also in the documentary, Jennifer Lopez admitted to Ben Affleck that she was angry at him for a long time.
“But that heartbreak set both of us on a course to figuring ourselves out to being better people,” she said. “I think I’ve forgiven you all the way. I think I need to forgive myself [for] some things.”
Lopez previously told Goldsmith-Thomas about Affleck’s participation in the documentary. “I just said to him during one of the parts of the movie, I was like, ‘Is this weird?’ He’s like, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘You’re crazy,’” she said. “I told him he was crazy, not me. But I know that I’m a crazy one. I get that part.”
Jennifer Lopez said she feels as an artist, it’s important to be vulnerable. “You have to, even when you’re playing a role, have to get down to the real parts of yourself,” she continued. “To share what it’s like to be human. And that is a scary thing to do.”
She revealed that she remains comfortable in front of the camera. “I am comfortable with it. But when you are kind of sharing your … you don’t have a script that you’re reading,” she added. “Playing a character or you’re not singing a song that you’ve written.”