* Birth Date July 24, 1969
* Birthplace The Bronx, New York
* Height 5’6”
* Relationship Status Married to singer/actor Marc Anthony
* Where You've Seen Her If you’re from the South Bronx, maybe you’ve seen her “on the block.” The rest of us have seen her all over television, film, blasting from the radio and in the press.
* Defining Quote “I have the ‘stardom glow.’”
She swears she’s still just “Jenny from the block” … except she’s conquered the worlds of television and film, she’s a multi-platinum recording artist and her very high-profile relationships have been splashed all over the press. Jennifer Lopez’s roots are in a rough New York City neighborhood, but her current lifestyle and enormous ego (with an equally proportioned derriere to match) are way up in the clouds.
MOVING TO THE BEAT
Born in Castle Hill in the Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrant parents, Jennifer Lynn Lopez’s dream was to be a dancer. She dropped out of college after a semester and scraped by with dancing gigs in night clubs and a day job at a legal office. In 1990, she made her first dent in showbiz when she entered a contest and won a spot as a “Fly Girl” on the variety comedy show In Living Color.
Lopez spent the next few years dabbling as a backup dancer and actress, landing roles in television and small films, until her first major role in Money Train alongside Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in 1995. Her most touted role came two years later in the 1997 biopic Selena. In the title role, a tragic Mexican singer who was murdered at the height of her career by an obsessed fan, Lopez gave the world a taste of her serious acting chops. Her performance got the attention of the Hollywood Foreign Press, which nominated her for a Best Actress in a Musical Golden Globe.
GETTING LOUD
In the next two years, her acting career took off and she landed several leading roles. In 1998, she decided to go back to her singing and dancing roots and record an album. Unlike other actors who have crashed and burned trying to transition into music, her debut, On the 6 (a tribute to the subway line see used to ride into Manhattan to auditions), broke into the Billboard top 10, buoyed by the number one hit 'If You had My Love.' Two other singles -- 'Waiting for Tonight' and 'Let’s Get Loud' -- were nominated for Best Dance Recording Grammys -- one in 2000 and the other in 2001.
She continued to balance acting and music and made history in 2001 when she became the first person to have a number one album (J.Lo) and number one film (The Wedding Planner) in the same week. She fell just short of replicating that success a year later when her film Maid in Manhattan hit number one at the box office but her album This is Me…Then topped out at number two.
FLOPS AND FIANCES
Her career took a major hit in 2003 with the critical and commercial flop Gigli, which she starred in with her then-fiancé Ben Affleck. Rumors swirled that the film’s epic failure played a part in their split. Lopez’s career never seemed to recover. She released another album, Rebirth, in 2005, which debuted at number two, but quickly fell off the charts. She also continued to star in relatively unsuccessful films before backing out of the limelight to marry Marc Anthony and start a family. In November 2007, she announced she was pregnant, and on February 22, 2008, she gave birth to twins -- Emme and Maximilian.
Throughout her hyped career, Jennifer has been the subject of feverish media scrutiny because of her love life. She was married in 1997 to Ojani Noa, a waiter, before she achieved the peak of her success. The marriage fell apart after a little over a year. They divorced in March 1998. Following her first marriage, she had a relationship with hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. The media followed the very high-profile, flashy couple’s every move, until they split in early 2001. She soon started dating backup dancer Cris Judd and tied the knot again in September 2001, but they divorced just eight months later.
FINDING MR. RIGHT
Her most overexposed romance came immediately after her split from Judd (which some speculated started before she broke things off) when she started stepping out with Ben Affleck. The couple's romance was major tabloid fodder, with numerous red carpet appearances, photo ops and candid interviews that merged for the monstrosity that was Gigli in 2003. Much to the public’s relief, they ended it soon after. Almost immediately, she was seen with longtime friend and ex-boyfriend Marc Anthony. This time, they kept their relationship under wraps and tied the knot in a secret ceremony on June 5, 2004.
Jennifer can now add wife, mom, businesswoman, designer (thanks to her clothing label JLO and her successful perfume line), restaurateur, owner of Nuyorican Productions and humanitarian to her resume. But her career has been on a downswing. Her 2010 film, The Back-Up Plan, flopped and her album Love? had to be pushed back numerous times after she ended her professional relationship with Epic Records. Not helping things, she was reportedly dropped from a possible judging gig on American Idol in 2010 because of her diva demands.
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